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ANNALS 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND 



COMPRISING 



BIOGRAPHIES, DESCRIPTIONS OF DEPARTMENTS, ACCOUNTS OP 
EXPEDITIONS, SKIRMISHES, AND BATTLES; 



POLICE RECORD 



SPIES, SMUGGLERS, AND PROMINENT REBEL EMISSARIES. 



TOGETHEK WITH 



'^imMt^, %nMmUf go^tvjj, ^^mm\$mut$, tU. 



OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE BATTLE OP STONE RIVER AND OP THE 
CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 

By JOHN FITCH, 

ATTORNEY AT LAW, ALTON, ILUNOIS, AND PROVOST JUDGE, AKMY OP THE CDMBERL4ND. 

Illiutrat«d with Steel Portraits, Wood Engramgg, and Maps. 

FIFTH EDITION. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. Xi>:r^ 
1864. 




Entered, accoriiing to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

FOR THE AUTHOK, 

in the Clei-k's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & CO. 



PRINTED BY LIPPINCOTT & CO. 



PEEFACE. 



To the soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland, and to their friends 
at home, the author presents this volume of portraits, sketches, and 
incidents, — a •work undertaken at the solicitation of many friends, with 
the view of affording pleasure to our soldiers and imparting information 
to the people, and, if it may be, to secure a fund for the erection of a 
monument to overlook the battle-field of Stone River, Tennessee, where rest, 
" unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown," hundreds of American citizens. 

This work is not intended as a history of the Rebellion, in a general 
sense, nor even as a detailed account of events occurring in the history 
of the Army of the Cumberland. It is simply a collection of sketches 
and portraits of many of its representative men, and a narration of 
many interesting events which have transpired within its lines. The 
more important of its military operations are given up to the time of going 
to press. The various departments are sufficiently described to illustrate 
their practical operation, at every fireside ; and in the grouping together 
of incident and anecdote, and of spy and smuggling events, the author 
has aimed to give life and zest to the volume. The work is issued almost 
regardless of cost, and is intended as a souvenir that shall remain when 
this army shall have been disbanded and these stirring times and scenes 
have passed away, — one which, it is hoped, the soldiers of the Cumberland 
will prize as their book, to be preserved by succeeding generations as a 
household treasure, its pages to be scanned by the descendant, while 
glorying in the deeds of a patriot sire during the dark days of the Great 
Rebellion. 

The author has endeavored to be modest and impartial in his meed of 

praise, — a most difficult task, where so much can be truly said of so many. 

The thousands of noble men in the Army of the Cumberland, who have 

left home, friends, fortunes, and high position, to brave the perils of camp 

and battle-field, all merit mention in such a work. Especially was it 

desirable that many particularly daring deeds of our officers and privates 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

should find record within these pages ; but the original limit of the work 
has already been greatly exceeded, and prudence restrains from a further 
advance. 

Although intended as a picture of our army, it is far from being 
complete. We have used but a small portion of attainable matter and 
portraits ; and many of our best and most notable generals — as Crittenden, 
Reynolds, Wood, Granger, Mitchell, Morgan, Turchin, and other high 
officers — we are unable to properly present in this volume. Ample 
material is left for a second volume of the " Annals," should its publica- 
tion prove desirable. 

To many friends in the army the author is indebted for assistance in 
collecting material, and with them any credit arising from the work is 
duly shared. The composition of such a volume amid the incidents and 
excitement of the camp will, we trust, constitute some apology for literary 
deficiencies. All responsibility respecting misstatement of fact in military 
movements, or of dulness or exaggeration in estimating individual character, 
rests with the author. Brief outlines were furnished, in some instances : 
for the rest, we have garnered here and there, with these pages as the 
result. 

This volume is published under peculiar circumstances ; and, in behalf 
of the officers of our army, — whom it represents, — the author tenders 
acknowledgment for its successful presentation to the public, as a work of 
art, to Messrs. Illman Brothers, the contracting engravers, for the sur- 
prisingly faithful likenesses of the portraits, — to Messrs. L. Johnson & Co., 
and to their admirable proof-reader and critic, for elegance of typography 
and correctness of diction, — to our publishers, Messrs. J. B. Lippincott 
& Co., for their encouragement, enterprise, and generous expenditure of 
capital, — and to all connected with the work, for despatch, it being issued 
within a period of ninety days from the commencement. 

Should the work prove sufficiently successful, the monumental idea will 
be carried out, and a shaft will be erected upon the battle-field, similar in 
design to that upon our title-page, — not of a boastful and vainglorious 
character, but simply to proclaim the story of the conflict and to transmit 
to posterity the moral of civil war. 

TuLLAHOMA, Tenn., August 10, 1863. 



PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 



The author, in behalf of the officers of the Army of the Cumberland, 
makes his grateful acknowledgments for the flattering reception given thu3 
far to this volume. To the public press of the country he is especially 
grateful for their most liberal, and to himself gratifying, mention of the 
work. 

The present edition contains additional matter of much value, viz. : an 
account of the campaign of Chattanooga and the consequent battle of 
Chickamauga, with a map exhibiting the strategic operations of our army. 
With tJiis addition the work is complete as a history of the Army of the 
Cumberland under Major-General W. S. Rosecrans. 

This work having attracted unexpected attention, and its authorship 
having been questioned, and attributed to various persons in order to injure 
them by an implication of self-praise, the author, in justice to those gentle- 
men, appends his name to the title-page of this edition. His only motive 
for withholding it was a desire to avoid any notoriety in the connection, 
as book-making is not his trade. 

The author desires to assure the public that the work originated solely in 
the desire to do good, — to cheer and encourage the army, to enlighten the 
people at home, to advance the Union cause, and to erect a stone upon the 
first great battle-field of our army. This latter idea will be faithfully carried 
out if the work be sufficiently successful. If, however, the scheme shall 
prove inexpedient, owing to unquiet times in Tennessee in the future, or 
from other cause, the fund accruing from the sale of the volume will be 
directed to some charitable purpose or channel for the benefit of the invalid 
or crippled soldier of the Union, his widow or orphans. 

The Author. 
Chattanoooa, Tenk., Noy. 25, 1863. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



^M pates. 

PAGB 

Major-General Rosecrans Frontiapiece 

Monumental Design Vignette 

General Rosecrans's Officers op Staff 40 

Major-General Thomas and Staff 56 

Ma.ior-General a. McD. McCook 73 

Major-General Rousseau and Staff 79 

Major-General Negley and Staff 91 

Major-General Palmer and Staff 119 

Major-General Sheridan and Staff 140 

Brigadier-General Johnson and Staff 152 

Brigadier-General Davis and Staff 158 

Brigadier-General Van Clbte and Staff 174 

Brigadier-General Morton and Staff 180 

Colonel Innes and Staff 192 

Major-General Stanley, Colonels Minty, Long, Stokes, and Captain Otis. 199 
Brigadier-Generals Hazen and Carlin, and Colonels "Wilder, Heg, Stough- 

ton, and Burke 219 

Colonel William Truesdail, Chief of Army Police 346 



tooil (Huts. 



Field Hospital at Murfreesborottgh 289 

Army Mail Escaping Guerrillas 309 

Mass upon the Battle-Field 327 

Kidnapping Negroes near Nashville 510 

Strange Descent op Rebel Cavalry Boots 567 

Guerrillas Burning Steamers on the Cumberland 615 

Gathering Contrabands while at Church 619 

Impressment of Vehicles, etc., at Nashville 632 

Destruction of Railroad-Train by Bushwhackers 643 



^ithoigraphs. 



Map of Stone River Battle-Fields 331 

Map showing General Rosecrans's Strategic Advance from Murfrees- 
BOROUGH to Chattanooga, and Plan of Battle of Chickamauga 459 



CONTENTS. 



liojritphital §hklts. 



FAOl 

Major-Geseral William S. Rosecrans 9 

Officers of Staff 40 

Majok-Genekal George H. Thomas 56 

Officers of Staff 66 

Major-General a. McD. McCook 73 

Major-General L. H. Rousseau 79 

Officers of Stavf 88 

Major-General J. S. Negley 91 

Officers of Staff Ill 

Major-General John McA. Palmer 11* 

Officers of Staff 134 

Major-General P. H. Sheridan 140 

Officers of Staff • 146 

Brigadier-General R. W. Johnson 162 

Officers op Staff 154 

Brigadier-General Jefferson C. Davis 158 

Officers of Staff 170 

Brigadier-General H. P. Van Cleve 174 

Officers of Staff 175 

Brigadier-General J. St. Clair Morton (Pioneer Brigade) 180 

Officers of Staff 184 

Colonel William P. Innes (1st Michigan Engineers) 192 

Officers of Staff 196 

Major-General D. S. Stanley (Chief of Cavalry) 199 

Colonel R. H. G. Minty 205 

Colonel Eli Long 210 

Colonel William B. Stokes 213 

Captain Elmer Otis , 215 

Brigadier-General W. B. Hazen 219 

7 



8 CONTENTS. 

TAOn 

BRIGADrER-GrENEBAL "W. P. CarLIN 225 

Colonel H. C. Heq 229 

Colonel J. T. Wilder 233 

Colonel W. L. Stoughton 238 

Colonel J. W. Bdrke 239 

Brigadier-General J. W. Sill (deceased) 243 

Colonel J. P. Garesche (deceased) 246 

Colonel G. W. Roberts (deceased) 250 

Colonel Leandeb Stem (deceased) .,,, 252 



Jirmg gc^artments. 



General Rosecrans's Head-Quarters 257 

Quartermaster's Department 265 

Commissary Department 274 

Provost-Marshal General's Department 282 

Medical Department 289 

Artillery Department 293 

Signal Corps and Telegraph Department 303 

Army Mail 309 

Army Directory 318 

Army Chaplains 320 

Head-Quarters Chaplain 325 

United States Sanitary Commission 331 

Army Police Department, and its Chlef 346 



€^d\{kM, lattlcs, and ^hirmtsltcs 

Of the Army of the Cumberland 359 

Jirmg police '§,emd 

Of Spies, Smugglers, and Rebel Emissaries 485 

PisMlanc0us. 

Anecdotes, Incidents, Poetry, etc 647 



gl^^cndk. 



Official Report of Generals Rosecrans and Bragg, of the Battle of Stone 

River 685 

General Rosecrans's Official Report op the Chickamauga Campaign 704 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



"William Stark Eosecrans was born in Kingston, Delaware 
county, Ohio, on the 6th of September, 1819. His mother, the 
daughter of Stephen and Mary Hopkins, of Wyoming, Luzerne 
county, Pennsylvania, and his father, the eldest son of Daniei 
Eosecrans and a Miss Crandell, were married in Luzerne county, 
Pennsylvania, and in 1808 emigrated to Ohio. The lineal an- 
cestors of the family, about whom much discussion and inquiry 
have arisen of late, originally came from Brandenburg, whence 
they removed to Amsterdam, and subsequently, about the year 
1660, emigrated to North Eiver, in what was then the Dutch 
colony of New Amsterdam, and now the State of New York. 
His name is a peculiar one, and has been variously written and 
pronounced. The correct spelling, however, as given above, is 
the same now as it has always been, and the proper, though not 
the popular, pronunciation is " Eosakrontz."* The father of 
the subject of this sketch was a prosperous business man, a 
farmer, and also engaged in mercantile pursuits. In the "War of 
1812 he served as adjutant to a light-horse company under 
General Harrison, thus practically exhibiting that self-sacrificing 
patriotism which was through life one of his most marked 
characteristics. His intelligence, energy, and determination gave 
him a wide influence among his neighbors and friends. Though 



* The derivation is from " Rose," a rose, and " Kranz," a wreath, — making 
the signification " a wreath of roses," a beautiful idea imparted to nomencla- 
ture by a race noted for their appreciation of the poetical and musical. 

9 



10 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

quiet and unassuming, it was the general opinion that he was 
possessed of an iron will and a hot temper. His honesty was 
proverbial, and in those days of early pioneer life he was the 
arbiter of many disputes and controversies, which were referred 
to " Captain Eosecrans" with the confident assurance that his de- 
cision would be just and impartial. Thus as a friend and adviser 
of the surrounding people, who often came to him with their 
trials and difficulties and vexations, he lived as a patriarch in 
the land, honored and respected by all. 

Although his parents were in comfortable circumstances, his 
father being owner of a store, a farm, and a number of town lots 
and houses, young William was early taught habits of industry, 
attending school in winter and working in the garden and upon 
the farm in summer. At thirteen he had become quite a man 
upon the farm, and at fourteen was sent to the store of one David 
Messenger, seven miles from his home, to close up the business, 
which he did successfully. At times he acted as book-keeper in 
the store, collected debts, and for some months in 1837 was clerk 
in a clothing-store. At the age of sixteen he made a trip down 
the Mississippi Eiver for the purpose of seeing the country, and 
had proceeded as far as Vicksburg when he was taken ill and 
compelled to return. In 1837, when in his eighteenth year, he 
applied to the Secretary of War for an appointment to the 
Military Academy at West Point, and through the influence of 
Judge Alexander Harper, member of Congress from his district, 
and his home friends, obtained the position. The class which 
he entered numbered one hundred and twelve at the beginning 
of the course, but at the time he graduated, in June, 1842, it had 
decreased to fifty-six. In the generality of the studies he stood 
third, fourth, and fifth in rank. After graduating he entered 
the Engineer Corps as second lieutenant, and was ordered to 
report for duty to Colonel E. E. De Eussey, at Fortress Monroe, 
Virginia. Here he remained until the 20th of August, 1843, 
acting most of the time as First Assistant Engineer, having been 
promoted to a first lieutenancy in the preceding April. On 
leaving Fortress Monroe, he was ordered to West Point, as 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. H 

Assistant Professor in the Engineering Department, whicli posi- 
tion he held until the next year, when he was detailed as 
Assistant Professor of Philosophy. lu this department he re- 
mained one year, and for two years thereafter was First Assistant 
Professor of Engineering, during a portion of which time he also 
served, by request, as Post Commissary and Quartermaster, 
besides having for nine months entire charge of the erection of 
the cadet barracks then building at that place. 

In August, 1847, Lieutenant Rosecrans was detailed to relieve 
Lieutenant H. L. Eustis, engineer in charge of the fortifications 
in Newport harbor, Ehode Island. Here five years were spent 
in constructing a military wharf and completing the batteries 
and interior arrangements of the forts. Here also he designed 
a general system of permanent barracks, which was submitted 
to the War Department, and by it referred to a select committee, 
who reported favorably upon it. In 1852, a special appropriation 
was made to survey Taunton and New Bedford harbors, with a 
view to permanent improvements. Lieutenant Eosecrans was 
detailed to take the survey, and in three weeks made thirty 
thousand soundings. In the spring of 1853 he was ordered on 
detached service to report to the Secretary of the Navy at 
Washington, by whom he was assigned to the Chief of the 
Bureau of Docks and Yards, and detailed by the latter as con- 
structing engineer at the Washington Navy Yard. Here he 
constructed a marine railway, built a large saw-mill, and remo- 
delled and improved the Dahlgren ordnance buildings, which 
were found to be in a bad condition. He also made plans for 
an immense machine-shop, a block of buildings 450 by 288 feet. 
These were to be so constructed that one engine would drive the 
machinery of the establishment. Plans were also submitted for 
the blacksmith-shop, it being so arranged that the smoke from 
the forges would pass off from one stack. He also designed 
shops for the manufacture of anchors, cables, and blocks, to take 
the place of the old ones. These plans were submitted to the 
proper authorities, and approved, and the estimates for con- 
struction made. They were much admired at the time by all 



12 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND 

who saw them ; and the general himself yet takes pride in them 
as among his best scientific efforts. Before steps were taken 
towards carrying them out, however, his health failed him, and 
he was told by his physician that he must have a rest of at least 
three months. Applying for leave of absence, he was told by 
the chief engineer that he could not be spared. He then re- 
solved to leave the service, and sent in his resignation to Jefferson 
Davis, at that time Secretary of War. The latter remonstrated, 
and reiterated the decision of the chief engineer, but finally 
gave him three months' leave of absence, telling him that at 
the expiration of that time he would probably change his mind, 
but if not his resignation would be accepted. 

His health not improving, he was obliged to persist in his 
resignation, which took effect Api-il 1, 1854. He then went to 
Cincinnati, and engaged in business as an architect and consult- 
ing engineer. His health was still feeble for several months; but 
he continued in that j)rofession until June, 1855, when the agent 
of an English and American coal company invited him to take 
charge of the company's mining-interests on Coal Eiver, Ka- 
nawha county, Virginia. One or two veins had been worked 
and exhausted, and the geology of the country was not then 
suflS^ciently known to enable the company to open new ones 
with any certainty. His first business in his new position was 
to examine and report upon the condition of the mines, and the 
next to make a geological survey of the country. This he did, 
and, by a series of scientific explorations, became so well ac- 
quainted with the topographical aspect of the vicinity that he 
was able to point out with an almost marvellous certainty the 
localities where new and profitable veins could be opened. Satisfied 
with the result of his survey, he submitted to the company plans 
for the development of the mines. To transport the coal from 
the mines to the river, it was necessary to construct a canal; and 
he became the president of the Coal Eiver Slack- Water Naviga- 
tion Company, formed for that purpose, of the stock in which 
three-fifths was owned by the State and two-fifths by private 
individuals. The company now desiring to engage in the manu- 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 13 

facture of coal oil, a practical engineer was employed to devise the 
plans. The result was a report that the oil could be made, but 
that a certain amount of capital must be furnished in advance. 
The sum stated was thought to be extravagantly large, and the 
disagreement which arose upon this point prevented further 
operations in that direction. 

General Eosecrans then determined to engage in the business 
himself, at Cincinnati. In company with a man who claimed to 
be experienced in the manufacture, he began the erection of a 
small establishment; but before it was finished he associated with 
him two other partners, and constructed largely increased works, 
capable of producing five hundred gallons per day. His first 
partner failing to make a marketable article, General Eosecrans 
determined to try it himself, and accordingly entered the 
laboratory and began a series of experiments with a view to the 
manufacture of a pure and odorless oil. After sixteen days' 
labor, he had about succeeded in his efforts, when he was terribly 
burned by the combustion of benzole gas, caused by using what 
was then supposed to be a patent safety-lamp. Although his 
clothes and flesh were badly burned, he had the presence of 
mind to make such dispositions that the fire was extinguished 
without injury to the works. He then walked home, — a mile and 
a half, — and took to his bed, where he lay nearly eighteen months, 
and for a time it was doubtful whether he could recover. The 
scars left by this accident have not yet disappeared, one upon 
his forehead being visible in his published portraits. During 
this time of illness his business languished and nearly ceased. 
His partners were honorable men, but inexperienced in chemistry 
and therefore not successful. Upon recovering, he again prose- 
cuted the business, and was getting his establishment into good 
working-order, when the rebellion broke out. 

The results of his investigations in the laboratory were nume- 
rous and vahiable. He believes he was the first to obtain a good 
article of odorless oil from petroleum. Directing his attention 
to the chemical composition of soaps, he made some valuable 
discovei'ies, among which was the finding of a cheap and sure 



14; ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

process of manufacturing a soap with chlorine properties. He 
also experimented in the construction of lamps, was the first 
to successfully use the round wick in burning coal oil, and in- 
vented a lamp upon which short chimneys could be used with 
a satisfactory result. 

At the beginning of the rebellion General Eosecrans was a 
private citizen, pursuing the even tenor of his way, his time 
and attention being occupied with his business and his family 
affairs. He had never been a politician. He had no taste for 
the publicity of political life, preferring the ease and quiet of 
home. But he was known as a military man of experience and 
judgment, and petitions soon came thronging in upon him from 
the different wards to assist in drilling the Home Guards. In 
response to them, he gave his services to the 14th Ward Company, 
called the " Marion Eifles." When it became evident that mili- 
tary measures must be taken to crush the rebellion, the patriot- 
ism inherited from his sire would not permit of his remain- 
ing an idle spectator of the scenes about to transpire, and he 
immediately offered his services to Governor Dennison of Ohio. 
They were at once accepted, and he was requested to act as 
engineer and lay out Camp Dennison, which he did. He was 
next sent to Philadelphia to confer with gun-manufacturers, 
with a view to procuring a supply for the Ohio troops, and 
thence proceeded to Washington, to make arrangements for their 
clothing and pay. While at the capital, he presented to the War 
Department an application, endorsed by Generals Scott, McClel- 
lan, Totten, Mansfield, and others, for an appointment as a 
brigadier-general of volunteers. Eeturning to Cincinnati, he 
found awaiting him there the Governor's commission as Chief 
Engineer of Ohio, with the rank of colonel, it being intended 
that he should serve upon the staff of General MeClellan. The 
latter, however, having been appointed a major-general in the 
Eegular Army of the United States, it became obvious to Colonel 
Eosecrans that he could not serve in that position ; and he con- 
cluded to enter upon active service in the field. He was accord- 
ingly commissioned colonel of the 2od Ohio Eegiment, and 



MAJOE-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 15 

repaired to Camp Jackson, at Columbus, which he named Camp 
Chase. Here he prepared a permanent camp for the 23d, 24th, 
25th, and 26th Ohio Eegiments. Three days afterwards he re- 
ceived the appointment of brigadier-general in the Eegular 
Army, with orders to report to General McClellan, which he did 
the same night at Cincinnati. 

General Eosecrans was ordered immediately to "Western Yir- 
ginia. Arriving at Parkersburg, he assumed command of a 
brigade composed of the 8th, 10th, 17th, and 19th Indiana Eegi- 
ments. McClellan having himself reached Grafton soon after, 
General Eosecrans was ordered to proceed by rail with his" 
brigade to Clarksburg as fast as possible. Advancing from that 
place, he entered the town of Buckhannon without resistance, 
and proceeded twenty miles farther, in the direction of Beverly, 
camping at Eoaring Creek within three and a half miles of the 
enemy, who were intrenched in a forest near the western base 
of Eich Mountain. The rebel force was then estimated to number 
from five to ten thousand, but has since been ascertained to have 
been less. Their position was a gap in the Alleghany Mountains, 
ten miles from Beverly, through which the road to the latter 
town ran, and which was the only crossing over those mountains 
on what was known as the Central Eoad. The remainder of 
their force was intrenched on Laurel Hill, on the main road run- 
ning north to Grafton, Beverly being the centre at which both 
these roads met and crossed each other. On the 8th of July, 
1861, General McClellan made an armed reconnoissance of the 
enemy's position, supported by General Eosecrans's brigade, 
which was left in the advance to lead the attack to be made the 
next morning. Eeturning to camp. General Eosecrans found 
there a young man for whom he had been searching some three 
days, and who was well acquainted with the country, his father 
living at the top of the mountain. From him he ascertained that 
there was a by-path by which he could reach the summit of the 
mountain without advancing on the road in which the rebels 
were encamped. This fact was at once reported to General 
McClellan by General Eosecrans, who proposed to take advan- 



16 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

tage of it, surprising and seizing the rebel position. The plan 
was approved, it being arranged that General Eosecrans should 
move at three o'clock in the morning, enter the woods, reach 
the summit of the mountain, and attack the enemy, while 
McClellan, so soon as he should hear Eosecrans's guns, was to 
move upon their front. That portion of the work allotted to 
General Eosecrans was faithfully performed. Starting in the 
midst of a rainstorm, he reached the enemy's position after a 
severe march of ten hours through a rough and trackless forest. 
It was still raining heavily as he encountered the rebel advance- 
guard; but, after a brief reconnoissance, he began the attack, at 
half-past three in the afternoon. 

At five the battle was over. The gap had been carried, and 
two pieces of artillery and a number of prisoners were captured, 
the enemy retreating to their camp near the base of the moun- 
tain. McClellan failed to co-operate as was expected, and with 
his seventeen hundred men General Eosecrans prepared to hold 
the gap and advance upon the rear of the enemy's camp. At 
this juncture some of the scouts captured and brought in a 
rebel officer. Colonel Scott, of the 44th Yirginia Infantry, who 
said that his regiment was marching to reinforce the troops hold- 
ing the gap when that point was attacked and carried by the Fede- 
ral troops, and that it had retreated with the rest to the camp 
below. It was now six o'clock in the evening; the men were 
weary with their day's work, the one day's rations which they 
had brought with them were exhausted, and a heavy rebel force 
was in their front. The situation was now dangerous; but the 
general determined to hold his position at all hazards, and began 
preparations to that end. A portion of the 19th Ohio was posted 
on the ridge, covering his rear. One of the captured guns and 
a body of troops were posted on the road looking towards Beverly, 
and the other gun and a portion of the 8th Indiana placed in 
position looking towards the rebel camp. By this time it was 
quite dark, and the rain coming down in torrents. The pickets 
kept up a constant firing through the night, but, with this excep- 
tion, nothing occurred to disturb its stillness. At three in the 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 17 

morning a prisoner was captured, who stated that the enemy, 
alarmed at the dangerous j)Osition he occujiied between the two 
bodies of our forces, was preparing to withdraw from it. Upon 
receipt of this intelligence. General Kosecrans immediately moved 
upon their camp and captured it, with two hundred and eight 
tents, all their artillery, tools, axes, stores, and equii)age of every 
kind, eighty wagons, and some eleven hundred prisoners. The 
dispersion and capture of this force compelled the rebel General 
Garnett to retreat from his position at Laurel Hill towards 
the Northwestern Virginia Eoad. General McClellan now 
pushed on to Beverly, when, learning of Garnett's retreat, he 
advanced to Cheat Mountain, from whence he was summoned, 
immediately after the battle of Bull Eun, to Washington. 

The command in Western Virginia now devolved upon Gene- 
ral Rosecrans. Thus far success had attended the Federal arms 
in every important movement within his department; but the 
prospects for the immediate future were not bright. The term 
of his three-months men was just expiring, and he was faced by 
a rebel army flushed with their recent victory at Bull Eun. His 
orders were simply to hold Western Virginia as best he could 
His three-months troops were soon gone, ana all he could do 
was to occupy the Northwestern Virginia Eoad, Cheat Mountain, 
and other strong positions, and await reinforcements from the new 
levy of three hundred thousand men which had been ordered. 
These began to arrive in due season; and, learning soon after that 
Floyd was attempting to cross the river at Carnifex Ferry, thus 
threatening General Cox's command at Gauley, General Eose- 
crans, with seven regiments of raw troops with arms just put 
into their hands, marched to attack Floyd and relieve Cox. 
When within seventeen and a half miles of the enemy's position, 
he learned that Floyd was strongly^ intrenched at Carnifex Ferry. 
Advancing immediately, he reached the vicinity of the ferry that 
afternoon, and, after reconnoitring the position, began the attack 
at three o'clock. Night set in before any decisive result had been 
achieved, and our ti-oops lay upon their guns, ready to renew the 
oontest in the morning. When morning came, however, it was 



IB ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

found that Floyd had evacuated his position and retreated under 
cover of night, destroying the ferry-boat as he left. As soon aa 
the necessary prejiarations could be made, General Rosecrans 
crossed the river and began the pursuit, in the direction of Cheat 
Mountain. Floyd was joined in his retreat by "Wise, and their 
united commands — numbering five thousand three hundred men 
— strongly intrenched themselves upon the top of the moun- 
tain. The roads were in an almost impassable condition and 
the weather stormy and inclement, and further operations 
against the enemy in their present position were deemed inad- 
visable. Many of our troops wei-e nearly destitute of clothing; 
and General Rosecrans determined to fall back twenty-three 
miles, in order to be nearer his base of supplies. 

While thus waiting. General Lee, who had assumed command 
of the rebel forces in Western Virginia, prepared a plan to attack 
him in front while Floyd was to come down in his rear, hoping 
thus between the two forces to crush him, capturing or dis- 
persing his army. General Rosecrans*s knowledge of the country 
.now served him to good purpose. He knew that Floyd must 
come in at Gauley, and accordingly made preparations to meet 
.and capture him there. For some reason — owing to the bad 
roads, it was said — Lee failed to make his promised attack 
in front; but Floyd came up in the rear, as arranged, and was 
repulsed. Through the negligence of subordinate officers, the 
plan laid for his capture failed, and he escaped. This defeat of 
Floyd, however, and the subsequent retreat of the enemy to 
Eastern Virginia, practically ended the campaign, and "Western 
Virginia was virtually cleared of rebel troops. For the service 
thus rendered, General Rosecrans was presented by the Legis- 
lature of "Western Virginia with a vote of thanks. 

The winter season was approaching; active campaigning in the 
field was at an end; but General Rosecrans, as commander of 
the department, still found work for his troops in hunting up 
and dispersing the numerous guei*rilla bands with which the 
country was infested. This done, he established his outposts on 
the Kanawha River, concentrated his spare ti'oojis at New Creek 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 19 

Station and Eomney, and on the 6th of December, 1861, himself 
returned to Wheeling, making that city his winter head-quarters. 
In the latter part of that month he solicited and received per- 
mission to go to Washington to lay before General McClellan a 
plan of operations which he had devised. This was to concen- 
trate the troops in Western Virginia, and to obtain from Ohio 
and Indiana sufficient new ones to bring the entire number up 
to twenty-five thousand effective men. This force he would 
gather secretly at Eomney, and with it advance rapidly upon 
Winchester, which place he would seize and strongly fortify, 
thus flanking the rebel position at Manassas. Waiting in Wash- 
ington nearly three weeks for his plans to be received and con- 
sidered by General McClellan, he learned meanwhile that General 
Lander had been ordered to occupy the line of the Baltimore 
& Ohio Eailroad, and that all the troops in his own depart- 
ment, with the exception of seventeen hundred, had been sent 
to that general. With his hands tied, he accordingly returned 
to Wheeling, there to witness the dissipation of the military 
power of his command and to contemplate the ignoble results 
for which the lives of our soldiers were being wasted. Mean- 
time he perfected a long-cherished plan of a train of three hun- 
dred pack-mules, which he was the first to suggest and maintain 
as practicable, demonstrating its superiority in point of effective- 
ness over the ordinary transportation trains during the winter 
season, by drawing up and submitting to the Quartermaster's 
Department tables of the comparative cost of two-, four-, and six- 
horse or mule teams, and of the pack-mule train. He next 
formed the plan of a spring campaign, having for its object the 
possession of the Virginia & Tennessee Eailroad, and the 
penetration of East, Tennessee as far as Bonsell's Station, or 
farther, if practicable, towards Lynchburg, Virginia. This plan 
was approved by the Secretary of War and General McClellan, 
each writing him an autograph letter in relation to the matter. 
Meanwhile, however, the clamor of politicians and the necessi- 
ties of military rank compelled the administration to create the 
Mountain Department for the benefit of other generals and their 



20 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

^ friends. The new arrangement absorbed General Eosecrans's 
command, and he was ordered to report to the Secretary of War 
for further orders. Thus, to satisfy outside demands and please 
apolitical faction, a practical plan of operations, which promised 
a highly successful termination and would have proved of im- 
mense advantage to the Federal arms, was thrown aside, and 
the season frittered away in a widely different campaign, barren 
of results, and, on the whole, not over-creditable to those by 
whom it was conducted. 

Upon General Eosecrans reporting to the War Department, 
the Secretary expressed much regret at the necessities prevent- 
ing his assignment to the command of the Mountain Depart- 
ment, and deputed him to find General Blenker's command, of 
whose whereabouts no definite information could be ascertained. 
Strange, and even ludicrous, as the fact may seem, the division 
was actually lost, and an extended and systematic search had to 
be made for it. General Eosecrans was directed to confer with 
General Banks, and, after finding the troops of Blenker, to put 
them in serviceable condition and get them to Fremont as soon 
as possible. Proceeding to "Winchester, he sent out messengers 
and scouts, and through them learned that General Blenker had 
reached Berry's Ferry, and, in attempting to cross the Shenan- 
doah at that point, had swamped the ferry-boat and lost a 
number of men. Blenker Avas immediately directed to pro- 
ceed to Snicker's Ferry, cross the river, and come to "Win- 
chester. "While awaiting the arrival of this division, General 
Eosecrans occupied the time in conferring with General Banks 
upon the state of military affairs and planning for the coming 
campaign. 

The situation at that time was thus : General Banks, with 
thirty thousand men, was advancing up the Shenandoah Yalley, 
and was then sixty miles distant from his base of operations at 
Harper's Ferry. General Milroy, with five thousand eight hun- 
dred men, was at Huttonsville. The centre of Fremont's force, 
under General Schenck, and numbering about four thousand five 
hundred effective men, was at New Creek Station. On the rebel 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. R0SECRAN8. 21 

side, Stonewall Jackson and Ewell were in the vicinity of Mount 
Jackson with a light column of from six thousand to eight thou- 
sand men. To make the rebels feel the weight of their heavy 
force, the following plan was agreed upon, after consultation 
with Generals Banks, Shields, and others, and telegraphed to the 
Secretary of "War. Blenker, without crossing the Shenandoah, 
was to move rapidly to Sperryville, thus cutting off Jackson's 
retreat through Luray Gap and compelling him to go south- 
ward to Brown's or Eockfish Gap. Banks was to advance im- 
mediately to Harrisonburg. The force at New Creek Station was 
to move up South Branch by way of Franklin, being no longer 
menaced by the rebels, and join Milroy, who was to come across 
Cheat Mountain to Middleburg. There the senior officer would 
take command of the whole force, and move on to Staunton and 
Charlottesville, while Blenker moved south along the Piedmont, 
with McDowell's force in echelon to support him. This dispo- 
sition would bring the weight of a heavy army corps on the 
left of the enemy's position at GTordonsville, while it would facili- 
tate the taking of the East Yirginia Eoad by Cox. The Secretary 
acknowledged the receipt of the plan, and submitted it to the 
President. The latter determined that it was too late to con- 
sult all the generals interested, and the whole plan came to 
naught. 

Thus a second opportunity to make an effective campaign 
was neglected, and a whole season lost. Perhaps its value 
may be best determined by the disastrous results which fol- 
lowed its non-adoption. The enemy made a raid northward, 
which this plan would have prevented. McDowell's plan of 
operations was rendered inoperative. Our magnificent oppor- 
tunities were wasted. The enemy was relieved of all apprehen- 
sion of danger from our forces in the Yalley. The crushing blow 
which McDowell, in aid of McClellan, had prepared to deal Jackson 
was averted, and the rebel general, making good his escape from 
the Shenandoah, was permitted to fall upon the right of our 
army on the Peninsula, and thus turn the scale of conflict. Such 
was the actual result. What would it have been had the plan 



2§5 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND. 

agreed upon by Generals Banks, Shields, and Eosecrans been 
adoj^ted and carried into effect? Jackson would have been 
forced southward, and his junction with Lee prevented. McClel- 
lan would have crushed the rebel army on the Peninsula, and 
McDowell, going in on McClellan's right, would have occupied 
Eichmond. To sum up all in a word, the campaign would 
have been illustrious, and the rebels have been driven from 
Virginia. 

About the 1st of April, General Blenker's division arrived, 
hungry and destitute, and went into camp. Their condition was 
wretched, resulting from neglect and incompetency. General 
Eosecrans at once inspected the corps and reported their con- 
dition to the "War Department. His whole attention was devoted 
to the supplying of their wants and equipping them for the 
spring and summer campaign. A rise in the Potomac Eiver 
delayed him somewhat, but he finally succeeded in getting them 
into serviceable condition, and marched with them to the vicinity 
of Moorefield, where he reported to General Fremont in person, 
on the 9th of May, 1862. This duty performed, the general pro- 
ceeded to Washington, arriving there on the 15th of May, and 
the same day was ordered to report to General Halleck at 
Corinth, Mississippi, then the great centre of public interest in 
the West as the probable field of an impending battle. Leaving 
his staff, horses, &c. behind, he hastened forward, and reached 
Corinth on the 23d, when General IIallec"k ordered him to report 
to General Pope, by whom he was placed in command of Colonel 
Jefferson C. Davis's division, which had just arrived from Pea 
Eidge, Arkansas. Four days afterwards, he was assigned to the 
command of the right wing of the Army of the Mississij^pi, just 
as it had advanced from its camp to the last line of trenches. 
While thus in the advance, sounds of constantly occurring explo- 
sions were heard within the enemy's lines; and he immediately 
sent to General Pope information that the rebels were un- 
doubtedly preparing to evacuate, and himself sent out two 
squadrons to reconnoitre. They advanced to Corinth, and, find- 
ing it evacuated, poured in with other troops. His command 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. *!3 

was then ordered to take five days' rations and march in pur- 
suit. He followed the enemy until eleven o'clock that night, by 
which time our cavalry had arrived and engaged their rear at 
Tuscumbia. Passing through their deserted camps, in which 
many tents and mxich camp-equipage had been left, General 
Eosecrans pushed on to* Booneville, and stationed his outposts 
beyond that town. 

General Halleck followed Beauregard's forces thirty-three 
miles, and General Eosecrans pushed on twelve miles farther, 
reconnoitring with infantry and cavalry. At Twenty-Mile 
Creek he touched the main body of the enemy, in strong force, 
at several points. Two or three hundred prisoners were cap- 
tured, and many stragglers released. General Buell's force now 
reinforced him preparatory to an attack on the rebels; but they 
hastily retreated; and on the 13th of June General Eosecrans 
returned to Camp Clear Creek, seven miles from Corinth. On 
the 17th General Pope left for Virginia, and General Eosecrans 
assumed command of the Army of the Mississippi, consisting of 
four small divisions. Of these, two were ordered to reinforce 
General Buell, and marched to Tuscumbi^ while General Mitchel 
crossed at Eastport. This done, the remainder of the army 
returned to Corinth, — two and a half regiments having been left 
at luka. 

General Bragg's forces had now gone, leaving Price and Van 
Dorn on their front. Two days after General Stanley's division 
left luka Price advanced and took possession of the place. A 
reconnoissance made by Colonel Mowry having established the 
fact that Price was really there, with a force variously estimated 
at from twenty to thirty thousand men. General Eosecrans 
devised a plan to attack and capture or totally rout him. With 
this view, he proposed to General Grant that the latter should 
advance his forces on one road directly to luka, while he him- 
self would march his two divisions by way of Jacinto, get in 
Price's rear, and cut off his retreat southward. This was agreed 
to by General Grant ; and on the 18th of September General 
Eosecrans concentrated at Jacinto two divisions of infantry and 



24 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

artillery and two regiments of cavalry. Starting at four o'clock 
on the afternoon of the 19th, and marching eighteen and a half 
miles, he arrived within a mile and a half of luka. Here the 
advance-guard of our forces, having skirmished for the last seven 
miles with the enemy's cavalry, encountered his infantry. Their 
camps being close by, a heavy force was rapidly pushed out to 
meet Eosecrans, who was obliged to deploy skirmishers on a 
narrow, wooded point, where there was room for only seven 
regiments. The enemy now opened with a heavy fire of canister 
and musketry, and the battle soon became very hotly contested. 
But two of General Eosecrans's batteries could be used, and one 
of these was in a cramped, unwieldy j)osition. Over this battery 
a fi"erce contest raged, the enemy seeming determined to capture 
it at all hazards. Thrice was it taken and retaken, and, a fourth 
time falling into the hands of the rebels, remained there until 
the next morning, when it was again recovered. Night put an 
end to the struggle, as yet undecided; and the wearied com- 
batants rested upon their arms almost within whisj)ering distance 
of each other. 

During the whole engagement General Eosecrans eagerly 
listened for Grant's answering guns, supposing that he was 
rapidly advancing in front; but, to his surprise, none were 
heard. Thus left in suspense as to the other column, he pre- 
pared to renew, unaided, the battle against the enemy's whole 
force. About midnight, however, he found that they had 
begun to retreat, and were already gone from his immediate 
front. Pursuit was at once made with cavalry and infantry, and 
the retreating column overtaken. The cavalry hung upon their 
flanks, and annoyed them to the extent of their power; but 
General Eosecrans's force was too small to cope with the rebels, 
and, having followed them to Bay Springs, a distance of twenty- 
five miles, he desisted from the chase. Eeturning to Jacinto, 
he moved thence to Corinth, and there established his head- 
quarters, having been placed in command of that district by 
General Grant, who had himself moved to Jackson, Tennessee. 
This was on the 21st of September. Eumors, various and inde- 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 25 

finite, followed the battle, and the movements of the enemy 
were closely scrutinized. It was finally ascertained that Price, 
marching rapidly in a southwesterly direction for thirty miles, 
had struck Baldwin; thence, making a detour to the northwest, 
he passed Dumas Post Office, fifteen miles from Baldwin, where 
he was joined by Van Dorn, who assumed chief command. The 
force now moved to Pocahontas, thirty miles, leaving Eipley a 
little on the left; and here it was joined by Lovell, whence they 
were reported to be about moving down to Chewalla, and thence 
to Corinth. 

To meet the emergency, General Eosecrans, upon learning the 
first movements of the enemy, on the 29th ordered in the troops 
from Eienzi and Jacinto, and they arrived at Corinth on the 
30th and Slst. On the 1st of October it was definitely ascer- 
tained, from strong cavalry scouting-parties sent out for that 
purpose, that the rebels were moving from EijDley via Euckers- 
ville, and that the main body was at Pocahontas. They evi- 
dently meant work; but where would the blow fall ? From their 
position it was equally easy to strike Bolivar, Bethel, Jackson, 
or Corinth ; and the question was, which would it be ? ISTo map 
of the country northwest of Corinth could be found ; and it was 
not easy to determine whether the threatened attack upon 
Corinth was a feint to cover a movement upon some other point, 
or whether the feint would be made elsewhere and the blow 
struck there. 

Eumors that the attack was to take the direction of Jackson 
or Bolivar via Bethel were so rife, and the fortifications of 
Corinth were so well known to the rebels, that General Eose- 
crans had hopes they would undertake to mask him, and, pass- 
ing north, give him an opportunity to beat the masking force 
and cut oif their retreat. This hope gained some strength from 
the supposed difficulties of the country lying in the triangle 
formed by the Memphis & Charleston and Mobile & Ohio 
Railroads and Cypress Creek. To be prepared for eventualities, 
Hamilton's and Stanley's divisions were placed just beyond 
Bridge Creek, the infantry outposts were called in from luka, 



26 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Burrsville. Rienzi, and Danville, and tlie outpost at Chewalla 
retired to New Alexander, and strengthened by another regi- 
ment and a battery, early on the morning of the 2d. During 
that day it was ascertained that the country to the north- 
west was practicable, and that there were two good roads 
eastward from Chewalla, one leading directly into the old rebel 
intrenchments, and the other crossing over into the Pittsburg 
Landing road. 

Accordingly, at half-past one on the morning of the 3d, Gene- 
ral Eosecrans ordered the following disposition of the forces for 
that day : — 

" There being indications of a possible attack on Corinth, immediately the 
following disposition of troops will be made. General McKean with his 
division will occupy the present position ; General Davies will occupy the 
line between the Memphis & Columbus road ; General Hamilton with his 
division will take position between the rebel works on the Puvdy and on the 
Hamburg roads ; and General Stanley will hold his division in reserve at 
or near the old head-quarters of Major-General Grant. 

" The respective divisions will be formed in two lines, the second line being 
either in line of battle or close column by division, as their circumstances 
may require. 

"The troops will move towards their positions, with one hundred rounds of 
ammunition and three days' rations per man, by three o'clock a.m." 

The troops at nine o'clock on the morning of the 3d occupied 
positions as follows : — Hamilton on the right, Davidson the centre, 
McKean on the left, with an advance of three regiments of 
infantry and a section of artillery under Colonel Oliver on the 
Chewalla road, at or near Alexander's, beyond the rebel breast- 
works. The cavalry were disposed as follows : — a battalion at 
Burnsville, one at Eoney's Mill on the Jacinto and Corinth road. 
Colonel Lee, with the 7th Kansas and a part of the 7th 
Illinois, at Kossuth and Boneyard, watching the rebels' right 
flank ; Colonel Hatch and Captain Wilcox on the east and north 
fronts, covering and reconnoitring. 

These dispositions are said by General Eosecrans, in his 
detailed report, to have been made because of the fully exjDlained 
difficulties of the northwesterly approach, and of the possibility 
that the rebels mii^ht threaten on the Chewalla road and attack 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 27 

by the Smith's Bridge road, on his left, or go round and try him 
with their main force on the Purdy or even on the Piti.-biirg 
Landing road. The general plan to be pursued was verbally 
explained to the division commanders on the morning, and 
was in effect this : — to hold the rebels at a distance by approach- 
ing them strongly from our assumed position, and, Avhen their 
force became fully developed and they had formed their lines, 
to take a position which would give us the use of our bat- 
teries and the open ground in front of Corinth, that position to 
be exactly determined by events and by the movements of the 
enemy. 

Early in the morning the advance under Colonel Oliver per- 
ceived indications that the pressure under which he had retired 
on the 2d came from the advancing foe, and accordingly took 
a strong position on the hill near the angle of the rebel breast- 
works, with his three regiments and a section of artillery. . By 
eight o'clock there was sharp fighting at this point ; but it was 
still by no means certain that the main attack of the enemy 
would be on Corinth. By nine o'clock the enemy began to 
press them sharply and outflank them. An officer sent to the 
front reported wide-spread but slack skirmishing, and said that 
the position of our advance-guard was an advantageous one and 
would be of great benefit to the attacking force. "With this 
view, it was ordered to be firmly held. At ten o'clock word 
came that the enemy were pressing the point hotl}^, and that 
unless reinforced the position must be yielded. General Davies 
was ordered to send up from his division two regiments; but it 
was found that General Mc Arthur had taken four more reo-i- 
ments from Mclvean's division, and was stoutly contesting the 
ground. General Davies now asked permission to rest his right 
on the rebel intrenchments ; and it was granted, with the verbal 
instruction that he might use his own judgment about leaving 
his present position for that, but in no event was he to cease 
touching, if possible, the left on McArthur's right. Davies 
accordingly advanced to the breastwork, but leaving an interval 
between his own and McArthur's left. The rebels, seizing the 



28 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

opportunity, developed their force along that line as McArthur 
retired from his position, and advanced behind Davies's left, and 
forced it, after an obstinate resistance, to fall back about a 
thousand yards, with the loss of two heavy guns. 

Our troops were fighting with great determination, firing low 
and very steadily. At one o'clock in the afternoon, Davies had 
resumed the position he occupied in the morning, and McArthur's 
brigade had fought a heavy force. The enemy were evidently 
in full strength and meant desperate work. There were no signs 
of any movement on our left, and only a few cavalry skirmishers 
on our right. It seemed certain that the attack in force would 
be made on our centre. Orders were accordingly given to 
McKean to fall back to the next ridge beyond our intrenchments, 
to touch his right on Davies's left, and Stanley to move north- 
ward and eastward, to stand in close echelon, but nearer town. 
General Hamilton was ordered to face towards Chewalla, and 
move down until his left reached Davies's right. Davies was 
informed of these dispositions, told to hold his gi'ound obsti- 
nately, and then, when he had drawn them in strongly, Hamilton 
would swing in on their front and rear and close the day. 
Owing to a loss of time in conveying the orders to Generals 
McKean and Davies, they were less perfectly conformed to than 
was wished, and the movement did not begin until about five 
o'clock. The enemy pressed Davies back with tremendous force ; 
and Stanley, with his division and his batteries held in reserve, 
was called upon, and sent a brigade under Colonel Mower to 
support Davies, whose right had at last become hotly engaged. 
Mower came up while Davies was contesting a position near the 
"White House, and Hamilton began to swing in on the enemy's 
flank, across the Columbus Eailroad, through a very impracti- 
cable thicket, when night closed in and put an end to the opera- 
tions for the day. 

General Eosecrans now had opposed to him the entire army 
which the rebels could muster in ISTorthern Mississij^pi, composed 
of Price's and Van Dorn's armies, Villepigue's and Lovcll's com- 
mands, and the remnants of Breckinridge's corps, all under the 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 29 

command of Van Dorn. They were in an angle between the 
Memphis and Columbus Eailroads, a position which rendered hi a 
left comparatively free but made his right very assailable. They 
undoubtedly outnumbered us two to one, and were now advised 
of our intended movements. New dispositions accordingly 
became necessary. The plan adopted was to rest our left 
on the batteries extending from battery Eobinette, our centre 
on the slight ridge north of the houses, and our right on the 
high ground, covering both the Pittsburg and Purdy roads, 
while it also covered the ridge roads between them, leading to 
their old camps. McKean had the extreme left; Stanley, with 
his well-tried division batteries, Williams and Eobinette, the 
Memphis Eailroad and the Chewalla road extending nearly to 
the Columbus road; Davies's sure division was placed in the 
centre, which was retired, reaching to battery Powell; Ha- 
milton's staunch fighting division was on the right, with Dillon's 
battery, supported by two regiments posted on the prolongation 
of Davies's line. 

Early in the evening, General Eosecrans called his division 
commanders together and explained to them the plans. By 
three o'clock in the morning, these dispositions were completed, 
and officers and troops, alike exhausted by fatigue, endeavored 
to obtain some rest. In a short time, however, and before day- 
break, they were awakened by the enemy's artillery — four bat- 
teries — firing upon battery Eobinette, within six hundred yards 
of which they had planted their guns. Shells flew thick and 
fast, perforating the Tishemingo House at Corinth, the telegraph- 
office, and the ordnance building. Our heavy batteries and the 
10th Ohio, placed north of General Halleck's old head-quarters, 
silenced them by seven o'clock, one piece being captured and the 
rest withdrawn. The skirmishers and sharpshooters were sent 
forward into the woods on our front, and found the enemy in 
force, evidently preparing for an assault. No movement took 
place, however, until about nine o'clock, when the heads of their 
columns emerged from the woods and bore straight down upon 
our centre, attacking first Davies, then Stanley, and Hamilton 



30 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

last. The rebels came on in gallant style; and our troops pnr- 
jjosely yielded and fell back, scattering among the houses. Ee- 
treating some two hundred and fifty yards, they rallied, and were 
reinforced by reserves from Hamilton's division. At the head 
of Price's right, storming columns advanced to near the hoiiscs 
on the north side of the square, in front of General Halleck's 
head-quarters, when they were greeted with a storm of grape from 
a section of Immell's battery, soon reinforced by the 10th Ohio, 
which sent them reeling back, pursued by the 5th Minnesota, 
which advanced to them from their position near the depot. 
General Sullivan was ordered and promptly moved to the 
suppoi't of General Davies's centre. His right rallied, and retoojc 
battery Powell, into which a few of the storming column had 
penetrated; while Hamilton, having played upon the rebels on 
his right, over the opening, very effectively with his artillery, 
advanced towards them, and they fled. The battle was over on 
the right. 

During this time the skirmishers of the left were moving in our 
front. A line of battle was formed on the bridge. About twenty 
miniites after the attack on the right, the enemy advanced in 
four columns on battery Eobinette, and were treated to grape 
and canister until within fifty yards, when the Ohio brigade 
arose and gave them a murderous fire of musketry, before which 
they broke and fell back to the woods. 

General Yan Dorn's attack was to have been simultaneous with 
that of Price. The generals had arranged to carry Corinth by 
one grand assault. But in their reconuoissance on Friday even- 
ing they entirel}" overlooked Fort Eobinette, — a fatal oversight. 
When they drove their wedge towards Corinth, one flange on 
the Bolivar road, the other on a branch of the Chewalla, they 
intended that both wings should move together. Topographical 
and artificial obstructions interrupted Van Dorn. He was 
obliged to sweep over a rugged ravine, through dense thickets, 
up hill over a heavy abatis, with his left ; it was necessary for 
his centre to dip down hill under the fire of Fort "Williams, 
Captain Gau's siege-guns in. the rear of the town, and under 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 31 

heavy musketry; while his right had to girdle a ridge and move 
over almost insurmountable abatis under the point-blank fii-e of 
both Fort Williams and Fort Eobinette, supported by a splendid 
division of veteran troojis. The latter fort had three ten- 
pounder Parrotts, and the former, thirty-pounder Parrotts. 
Price had nothing to delay him, and was in time. Van Dorn 
was too late, — a few moments only, but long enough to seal the 
fate of Price, who was overwhelmed and driven back. 

Van Dorn's situation was desperate. Nothing but a feat of 
daring whose success would be little short of a miracle could 
save his army from total rout. Battery Eobinette must be 
carried by storm ; and audaciously enough he attempted it. His 
men obeyed magnificently. Gallantly they were reformed and 
led to the charge by Colonel Eogers, of the 2d Texas, acting 
brigadier-general. The troops most relied on were those from 
Texas and Mississippi. Two brigades, one supporting the front 
at close distance, moved up solidly towards the face of the foi-t. 
The Parrotts of both redoubts poured a constant stream of shot 
and shell, grape and canister, into their close ranks, from the 
moment they began their advance; and at every discharge great 
gaps were made in their columns. But there was no faltering. 
The ranks were promptly closed, and steadily they moved to 
the front, bending their heads to the storm. Scores were 
slaughtered while thrusting themselves through the rugged 
timber, but no man wavered. Onward, onward they came, 
steady and unyielding as fate, their leader in front. The edge 
of the ditch is reached, and they pause to take breath for a final 
onset. It is a fatal pause. It gave our men time to recover 
from the surprise into which the boldness and audacity of the 
movement had thrown them, and they were now ready for the 
assailants. Eogers, the brave Texan, with the rebel flag in his 
left and a revolver in his right, advanced, firing, leaped the ditch, 
scaled thq parapet, waved his banner aloft, and tumbled head- 
long to its base. And now the deadly musketry fire of the in- 
fantry supports staggered and broke the ranks of his followers, 
and at the word " Charge I" the 11th Missouri and 27th Ohio 



32 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

sprang up and forward at them, chasing their broken fragments 
back to the woods. Thus by noon ended the battle of the 4th of 
October. 

The day was extremely warm, and our troops were nearly 
exhausted. Water and ammunition were sent to them as they 
rested ^n the field, and they patiently awaited another advance 
of the enemy. No signs of their reappearance occurring, 
skirmishers were sent out, who soon found and reported that 
their skirmishers had gone from the field, leaving their dead and 
wounded. By four o'clock it was known that the enemy were 
retreating, at least to Chewalla. Having satisfied himself of 
this. General Eosecrans rode over our lines, announcing the 
result of the fight in person, and notified his victorious troops 
that after two days' fighting and two sleepless nights of pre- 
paration, movements, and march, he wished them to replenish 
their cartridge-boxes, haversacks, and stomachs, take an early 
sleep, and start in pursuit by daylight. 

The results of the battle aro thus briefly stated by the general 
in his ofiicial report : — 

"We fought the combined rebel force of Mississippi, commanded by Van 
Dorn, Price, Lovell.Villepigue, and Rust, in person, numbering, according 
to their own authority, thirty-eight thousand men. 

" We signally defeated them, with little more than half their numbers, and 
they fled, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. 

" The enemy's loss in killed was one thousand four hundred and twenty- 
three, officers and men ; their loss in wounded, taking the general average, 
amounts to five thousand six hundred and ninety-two. We took two thou- 
sand two hundred and forty-eight prisoners, among whom are one hundred 
and thirty-seven field-officers, captains, and subalterns, representing fifty- 
three regiments of infantry, sixteen regiments of cavalry, thirteen batteries 
of artillery, and seven battalions, making sixty-nine regiments, six battalions, 
and thirteen batteries, besides separate companies. 

" We took also fourteen stands of colors, two pieces of artillery, three 
thousand three hundred stand of arms, four thousand five hundred rounds 
of ammunition, and a large lot of accoutrements. The enemy blew up 
several wagons between Corinth and Chewalla, and beyond Chewalla many 
ammunition-wagons and carriages were destroyed, and the ground was 
strewn with tents, officers' mess-chests, and small arms. We pursued them 
forty miles in force, and sixty miles with cavalry." 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 3S 

Something additional may be said in reference to the pursuit. 
It began early the next morning, and their rear-guard was over- 
taken at Chewalla. Pressing on, they made a short stand at 
Tuscumbia Hill, but were driven from it after a short struggle. 
As our forces advanced, they found innumerable marks of a pre- 
cipitate and disordered retreat. Tents, camp-equipage, wagons, 
&c. had been abandoned, and lay thickly scattered along by the 
roadside. The pursuit ^as still vigorously kept up. Upon 
reaching the Hatchie Eiver, the bridge was found to be destroyed ; 
but JMcPherson's engineers repaired it, and by dark our forces 
were crossing over and in hot pursuit. On our first day's ad- 
vance, General Hurlbut had met the rebels and driven them back 
towards Eosecrans; and now word came from Jonesborough 
that General Ord's command had fought them and driven them 
on to the route by which he was so rapidly pursuing them. 
Upon this intelligence. General Rosecrans requested General 
Hurlbut to support him, and also asked General Grant to send 
General Sherman to his assistance. The enemy were thoroughly 
beaten. Our own men were in the best of spirits, and eager for 
a raj)id, effective, and uninterrupted pursuit until the rebels were 
captured or destroyed It was explained to General Grant that 
if Sherman would come in on the west the enemy could be kept 
moving south, and thus be effectually scattered or driven to the 
wall. Sixty thousand rations were issued to his OAvn troops, 
thirty thousand were sent to Hurlbut, and eighty wagon-loads 
followed immediately from Corinth. But General Grant decided 
that further pursuit was inadvisable; and the army was recalled, 
greatly to its chagrin and mortification. Thus we failed to 
realize the full results of this magnificent victory. The rebels 
were demoralized and badly frightened, even going so far as to 
burn their stores at Tupelo. General Rosecrans is confident 
that had he been allowed to continue the pursuit he would easily 
have gone to Vicksburg, which was then but feebly defended, 
and have captured that important stronghold with but a tithe 
of the blood and treasure which have since been expended in its 
reduction. 

3 



3-4 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Returning from the pursuit, General Roscerans re-established 
his heail-quarters at Corinth, remaining there until October 26, 
"when, in 2)ursuance of an order from the War Department, 
dated October 24, creating the Department of the Cumber- 
laud and the 14th»Army Corps, and assigning him to its direc- 
tion, ho left Corinth, arriving at Louisville on the 30th, 
and at once assumed command. From that time his military 
career is inseparably connected with that of the Army of the 
Cumberland, and is related in other pages of this volume. To 
them the reader is referred, Avith the confident assurance that he 
will there iind a record no less bright in all that goes to make 
his previous life one of usefulness to his country and of honor to 
himself. 

Xot only has General Eosecrans excelled as a military leader, 
but as a far-seeing statesman with military power, located in 
the midst of a rebellious and socially diseased community. 
During his several weeks' stay in Xashville, Tennessee, last winter, 
he was especially mindful of the social condition of that people, 
and labored with them in every possible direction, — with words 
of kindness and acts of favor, and at times with force and seve- 
rity, as occasion demanded. He devised a system of oaths and 
bonds as one medium of reconciling and persuading, and even 
forcing, a stitt-necked people to be loyal. Facilities of trade 
were afforded only to Union men, and passes to and fro were 
rigorously denied to rebels and traitors. Protection-papers were 
granted only where parties placed themselves in a proper atti- 
tude of loyalty to that power to which appeal was made for 
protection. He paid much personal attention to his scout and 
spy system, in connection with his Chief of Army Police, Colonel 
William Truesdail, with, at times, remarkably beneficial results. 
He heard complaints, and investigated serious personal charges, 
daily, restoring property here, condemning it there, and con- 
stantly dealing otit righteous, even-handed justice, with a quick- 
ness, sagacity, and prudence which were iiniversally appreciated. 
After the memorable tragedy oi Stone Eivcr, and during the 
past four or five months, General Eosecrans has been daily 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 35 

called upon to adjudicate in the manner of a magistrate and 
with the power and responsibility of a military autocrat. 
Through it all shine forth, daily and hourly, his native, inhe- 
rent love of truth and justice, and its attendant modesty, sim- 
plicity, and gentle kindness. As a rule, his action is in constant 
conformity to high principle. Recently he ordered the seizure 
of all serviceable horses in Murfreesborough, Nashville, and 
the adjacent country, for military necessities; and some seven 
hundred were thus gathered in and about the city of Xashvillc. 
A remarkable sensation ensued : prayers and petitions flooded 
in upon him for restoration, upon innumerable strenuous pleas, 
but in vain. He excepted but three cases, — one, of a team 
owned by and necessary to the manager of the State Insane 
Asylum, six miles in the interior; one horse owned by the aged 
Major Lewis, once an aide to General Andrew Jackson; and the 
carriage-horses of Mrs. Ex-President James K. Polk. " No, sir," 
said he to one persistent in his claims for restoration : " the 
Government needs your horses, and will pay you for them. I 
cannot restore them to you : I could not restore those of my old 
friend Bishop "Whalen, the Catholic Bishop of Nashville, nor can 
I yours." 

As is well known. General Eosecrans is a firm and consistent 
member of the Roman Catholic Church. His religious duties 
are a matter of daily thought and practice, whether at home or 
abroad, at the house of prayer or upon the field of battle. Night 
and morning find him a suppliant before the throne of the 
Eternal One, and the life of to-day seems a lesson impressive 
of the life to come. So believe those who during many months 
past have often witnessed his heartfelt, unostentatious attejition 
to sacred things. Especially in times of peril is this faith and 
confidence attended with happiest results. During the battles 
of Stone River, while riding over the fields through the fiery 
hail, the general's calm courage was remarked by all. He is 
truly a hero xipon the battle-field. In Western Virginia, and at 
luka and Corinth, he was personally present at each conflict, 
and at times in its very midst. His record as a general is no 



86 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

brighter than is his record as a soldier. During those mo- 
mentous hours of undecided contest at Stone Eiver, he was 
everywhere amidst battle-dangers, cheering and reviving his 
scattered columns, while his adversary, the rebel Greneral Bragg, 
is said to have been safely seated in the cupola of the court- 
house at Murfreesborough, overlooking the field, and from thence 
momentarily despatching orders. Sustained by his religious 
faith, and therefore truly fearless of personal consequences, 
death for him had no terrors. "When told that the lamented 
Colonel Garesche, his chief of staff, had been killed, he remarked 
to his companions, " Brave men die in battle. Let us push on." 
Upon learning of the death of the gallant General Sill, and the 
reported death of Major-General McCook, he paid a brief tribute 
to their courage, and cheered those about him with words some- 
what as just related. When the tremendous battle of Friday 
evening was won, and Breckinridge and his rebel legions were 
BO signally repulsed, the general remarked, in response to the 
congratulations of the author, " Yes, God has truly blessed us." 

This faith in God and His goodness is the result of many years' 
belief in the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and of participa- 
tion in its rites. His parents were Episcopalians, and he was 
bred to that faith, but embraced Catholicism while a student at 
West Point, — as was also done about the same time by his bro- 
ther, now Bishop of Cincinnati, and one of the pillars of that 
Church in the West. While thus a devoted and earnest Catholic, 
the general is no bigot. His religion is a personal matter, and 
is not intruded upon others, he respecting the reasonable views 
of all, while adhering strictly to his own. His staff embraces 
religionists of various denominations and creeds, there being 
upon it but a single Catholic. In the walks of home life he 
inclines to associates of pure mind and refined understanding, 
as most congenial to his taste. In time of war ho wisely extends 
this preference, and, while he has due regard for intelligence and 
purity, is not unmindful of the brightness and beauty of the 
rough diamond, and delights to call around him the bold and 
daring. i 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 37 

Another of tlie geueral's characteristics is his pride in young- 
men. Of such his staff is mainly composed ; and many of his 
generals have not yet seen the midsummer of life. As with his 
officers, so with the masses of his soldiery, youth is their marked 
peculiarity and crowning glory. In this rebellion the general 
recognizes a contest in which the young and giant mind of the 
nineteenth century is battling against old systems of social and 
moral barbarism, and by which a new life and a higher civiliza- 
tion will be developed. He believes it to be a struggle of liberty, 
Heaven's choicest blessing to man, with human bondage, — a 
struggle in which the chains of the latter shall be broken, and 
idleness and the grovelling vices of a serfdom equally degrading 
to master and slave give place to labor and its concomitant 
virtues. 

Previous to the rebellion, no man's history was complete 
without the record of his political and partisan life. General 
Eosecrans has no such record. Party machinery was always 
uncongenial to him, and he thoroughly avoided it. His aversion 
to, and even contempt of, professed politicians, the managers of 
political clubs and caucuses, the connivers at election tricks 
and the winkers at -ballot-box frauds, is refreshingly hearty. He 
participates in no party caucuses, but votes for such men and 
measures as seem at the time to be best. Until quite recently, his 
political views and votes were not generally known beyond the 
circle of his more intimate friends. He believes that the strict 
adherence to party in times past, and the consequent party 
excesses, have been a bane to our national prosperity, and that 
it is this partyism which, lending strength to ambitious and 
dissolute leaders, has involved the country in all the calamities 
of civil war. At the last election he voted for Stephen A. 
Douglas for President, persuaded that the views of that states- 
man upon the all-absorbing slavery question, fairly and fully 
carried out, would best tend to avert the impending storm. 
When the first gun was fired at Sumter, with Douglas he came 
to the rescue, believing, with him, that the preservation or 



88 ARMY OF TUE CUMBERLAND. 

destruction of the Government was now the only issue before 
the people. 

Upon the question of slavery General Rosecrans is decided, 
almost to radicalism. What he, would not have forced upon the 
South he is bow confident they have accomplished for them- 
selves. While he would have left their peculiar system to 
wrestle with the steady advance of free labor and thus through 
a gradual decline reach at last its inevitable end, he is now 
earnest in the belief that its days are numbered with the present 
century. The evils of slavery are with him a pregnant text. 
In the desolated fields and deserted homes of Yirginia and Ten- 
nessee he witnesses the vengeance of Heaven upon the iniquities 
of man, and in the sufi^ering and sorrow which war produces he 
recognizes a just retribution for the wrongs our nation has per- 
petrated upon a weak and lowly race. Especially is he severe 
in his comments upon the assumed superiority and aristocracy 
of the slaveholding portion of the South, The author has often 
heard him declare that " of all aristocracies upon earth, that of 
th« slaveholder is the most meaningless, the most contemptible, 
and the most damnable." The following extract from a letter 
written by General Eosecrans, dated at the head-quarters of the 
Army of the Mississippi, July 20, 1862, most forcibly portrays 
his sentiments respecting the rebellion, and the institution of 
slavery : — 

" For more than a year we have engaged in this struggle, into which an. 
arrogant and dictatorial slave-oligarchy has driven a free, happy, and peace- 
ful people, fighting for the rights of all. With true bravery and invincible 
patience our citizen soldiers have stood on this ground to the present moment, 
against violators of the laws of war and humanity. Remaining true to their 
principles, they have said, by words and actions, to their fellow-citizens in the 
South, We fight for common rights. If we win, you win. If the Govern- 
ment is maintained, you will dwell under the protecting shadow as freely 
as we. And there we stand, and thus we say, to-day. 

" But if the Confederates prevail, farewell peace and safety to us ; farewell 
freedom, forever ! Their principles and -leaders are known to us. They 
cheated us, crying out, No coercion ; holding out false hopes and deceitful 
assurances of friendly regard, while, assassin-like, they were preparing to 
destroy our Government and reduce us to anarchy or servitude. The past 
year's experience renders it certain that if they triumph, blood and desola- 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 39 

tion, fire and sword, or arbitrary subjection to their -svill, awaits every loliitt 
man who has Manhood enoiujh to dislike their system of slavei'ij, 

"They will omit no means, honest or dishonest, to insure success. Misre- 
presenting, calumniating our motives, ridiculing our honest efforts to mitigate 
the horrors of war, and inflaming the passions of the populace by low 
epithets, are among the milder and more ordinary means resorted to by this 
pseudo 'chivalry,' the meanest aristocracy that ever stood at the head of a 
civilized society." 

An incident is related whicli illustrates Lis disregard of popular 
and local prejudices. While in charge of the Government works 
at Washington, he was for some time superintendent of a 
Sabbath-school connected with his Church, where some seven 
hundred little negro children were taught their only lesson of 
Christianity, — an act creditable to the manliness that will thus 
rise above prejudices, and due to that true religion which teaches 
that all nations, all classes, all races, have an equal part and 
claim in the blood of Christ. 

Lest the author should be accused of partiality, which will, 
at times, mislead the judgment of the most cautious biogra- 
pher, he appends the following testimonj^ of ability and worth, 
from an enemy. A correspondent of the Atlanta (Ga.) " Com- 
monAvealth," in a letter published some two months after the 
battle of Stone Eiver, thus speaks of him : — • 

" General Rosecrans is a man of more than ordinary ability. In all the 
various positions in which he has been placed, he has exhibited the most 
untiring industry and indomitable energy. lie is an accomplished engineer, 
a wily strategist, and a brave and prudent leader. He is undoubtedlj^ the 
ablest general now in the Federal army. He is very different from the native 
Yankee, being bold, frank, outspoken, and possessing the dash and manner 
of the Western people. He is the idol of his officers and men, and possesses 
their entire confidence to an eminent degree. He will fight ; and he impresses 
it upon those* about him that hard licks alone will end the war. 

. " Sociallj', General Roseci-ans is modest, refined, polite, and affable. He 
would command respect and confidence in any community. In person he is 
five feet ten inches, and in weight about one hundred and sixty pounds. 
He stands very erect, with mllita'i-y dash and bearing strongly depicted in 
his person. His features are mild, but there is a striking expression in his 
clear gray eyes. His complexion is florid, hair slightly tinged with gray, 
and his features and person would be called handsome. General Rosecrans 
is a devoted member of the Roman Catholic Church." 



40 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND. 

In conclusion, we may add, the friends of General Eosecrans 
claim for him no Napoleonic attributes, nor do they attempt to 
clothe him with the Tyrian pui-ple of a Caesar. Every age has 
its hero; and the boast of one century may be the curse of 
another. All that we claim for him is that he is an honest, 
practical man, a shrewd, patient, skilful general, and an ardent, 
self-sacrificing patriot. The foregoing pages show that his life 
has been one of eminent usefulness tO' society and to his country. 
As a citizen, as a teacher, as a public servant, as a soldier, and 
as a commander, we may well regard him as a beaming light in 
the pathway of virtue, honor, and integrity. His genial coun- 
tenance, pleasing smile, and easy, unaffected manners, every- 
where the same, have kindled in all his friends an affection as 
lasting as it is warm ; and many a soldier and citizen will in 
after-years remember with feelings of admiration and love the 
present commander of the Army of the Cumberland. 



THE STAFP. 



The staff of General Eosecrans is composed as follows. The 
biographies of such as we have been able to obtain will be found 
following the list. 

Brig.-Gen. J. A. Garfield Chief of Staff 

Brig. -Gen. J. St. C. IMortox Chief of En (/^rs, com'crg Pioneer Brigade. 

Col. James Baenett, 1st 0. V. AvVy ...Chief of Artillery. 

Col. Jos. C. McKiBBiN Add'lA.n. C, A.A.I. Gen'l. 

Lieut.-Col. C.'GoDDARD A. A. Gen'l. 

Lieut. -Col. A. C. Ducat A.I. Gen'l. 

Lieut.-Col. Jno. W. Taylor Qr.M., Chief Qxtartermaxter. 

Lieut.-Col. Sam'l Simmons C.S., Chief Commissary. 

Lieut.-Col. Wm. P. Hepburn, 2d Iowa 

Cavalry , Insp. Cavalry. 

Major Wm. McMichael A. A. Gen'l. 

Major Ralston Skinner Judges-Advocate. 

Surgeon G. Perrin, U.S. A Medical Director. 

Surgeon A. H. Thurston, V.S.Y ......... Ass' t Medical Director. 

Asst.-Surg. Dallas Bache, U.S. A Staff Surgeon. 

Asst.-Surg. Jas. F. Weeds, U.S. A Medical Inspector. 






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€3^iEF QFSFrOSEMi ®3F aTAFF. 



B LIPPINCOTT &C0 PHlLADf 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL GARFIELD. 41 

Major W. H. Sidell, 15th Inf. U.S.A... J.. A. G., and Chief Muslering and Dis- 
bursing Officer. 
Major W. M. Wiles, 44th Ind. Yols.... Provost-Marshal General 

Major Frank S. Bond Senior Aide-de-Camp. 

Capt. J. H. YouNO, 15th Inf. U.S. A Mustering Officer. 

Capt. J. C. Peterson, 15th Inf. 'U.S.A...A. A.I. G. 

Capt. Henry Thrall A.A.G. 

Capt. J. Bates Dickson A. A. Gen'l. 

Capt. James Curtis, 15th Inf. \J.S.A...A.A. I. G. 

Capt. A. S. Burt Add'l A.D. C, A.A.I. G. 

Capt. Hunter Brooke Add'l A.D. C, Acting Judge-Advocate. 

Capt. W. M. Warren A. Q.M., In chargeof Army Supply Trains. 

Capt. Elias Cosper, 74th 111. Vols Ist Ass' t Provost-Marshal Gen'l. 

Capt. R. M. Goodwin, 37th Ind. Y ols... 2d Ass' t Provost-Marshal Gen'l. 
Capt. G. S. Hubbard, 88th 111. Yo\a. ...Acting Ass' t Inspector- General. 

Capt. C. R. Thompson Add'l A.D. C, A.D. C. 

Capt. Horace Porter Ordnance U.S.A., Chief Ord. Officer. 

Capt. David G. Swaim A. A. G. 

1st Lieut. Byron Kirby, Gth U.S. Inf. ..A.D. C. 
1st Lieut. W. H. Greenwood, 51st 111. 

Vols Ass't Topographical Engineer. 

1st Lieut. Henry Stone, 1st Wis. Vols.^.^..4. G. 
1st Lieut. C. M. Brazee, 74th 111. Vols.^.^. Q.M. 
1st Lieut. H. L. Newberry, 1st Middle 

Tenn. Cav Chief of Courier Lines. 

1st Lieut. W. L. Porter, 56th 0. Vols..^.^.Z>. C. 
1st Lieut. Jas. K. Reynolds, 6th Ohio 

Vols A.A.D.C. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL GARFIELD. 

James Abram Garfield was born November 19, 1831, in 
Cuyahoga county, Ohio. His parents were natives of the New 
England States. By the death of his father he was, while yet a 
small boy, thrown upon his own energies and resources for a 
livelihood. At the age of sixteen he drove horses on the Ohio 
& Pennsylvania Canal, and in various other employments he 
" paddled his own canoe" successfully over the waters of varied 
fortune, and entered Williams College, Massachusetts, where 
he graduated in 1856. His plan of supporting himself while 
attending college was ingenious. He insured his life for a con- 
siderable amount, and borrowed the necessary funds by pledg- 



4'i ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

ing the policy as security. After graduating, lie returned to the 
West, and during a period of three j-ears was President of a 
Collegiate Seminary at Iliram, Portage county, Ohio. In 1859 
he was elected to the State Senate for the term of two years, 
and in 1860 was admitted to the bar as a practising attorney. 

Upon the breaking out of the rebellion. General Garfield was 
among the first to lay aside the ease and enjoyment of pri- 
vate life and the attractions of personal and political popularity 
and enter upon the arduous duties of the soldier. He set about 
raising a regiment among his pupils and friends and fellow- 
citizens; and mainly by his efforts the 42d Ohio Regiment was 
formed, of which he was appointed colonel, by Governor Denni- 
son, in August, 1861. 

On December 17 of that j^ear he left Camp Chase, Ohio, with 
his regiment, under orders for the Big Sandy Valley region, in 
Eastern Kentucky, reporting in person to General Buell at 
Louisville. Upon arriving in that city he was invited by General 
Buell to arrange his campaign; and he accordingly worked out a 
plan, which was submitted to and approved by the commanding 
general. The next day he started for his field of operations with a 
little army of four regiments and about six hundred cavalry. The 
Big Sandy was reached, and followed up for some sixty miles, 
through a rough, mountainous region, his force driving the out- 
posts of General Humphrey Marshall before them . for a con- 
siderable distance. On the 7th of January, 1862, he drove the 
enemy's cavalry from Paintville, after a severe skirmish, killing 
and wounding twenty-five of them. At a strong point, three 
miles above Paintville, Marshall had prepared to make a stand, 
with two batteries of six guns each, four thousand five hun- 
dred infantry, and seven hundred cavalry; but when his cavalry 
were thus unexpectedly driven in, his courage failed, and he 
hastily evacuated his works, retreating up the river. 
. The rapid marching, thiis far, had much exhausted General 
Garfield's forces: still he resolved to pursue, and, picking out 
eleven hundred of his ablest troops, continued on to Prestonburg, 
a distance of fifteen miles. There he found the rebels strongly 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL GARFIELD. 43 

2)osted upon the crest of a liill, at once attacked them, and main- 
tained the battle during five hours, the enemy's cannon mean- 
while playing briskly. Although they were now under fire for 
the first time, the daring valor of the Union troops swept all 
before them : the rebels were driven from every position, and, 
after destroying their stores, wagons, and camp-equipage, they 
precipitately retreated to Pound Gap, in the Cumberland Moun- 
tains, sixty miles above. This was the first brilliant achievement 
of the war in the West, and a most complete and humiliating 
defeat to the rebels, their loss in killed and wounded amounting 
to two hundred and fifty, in addition to forty taken prisoners, 
while that of the Federals was but thirty-two, all told. It is 
related of General Garfield that at the time of this battle he 
had in his possession a letter written a short time befoi^ by 
"Humphrey Marshall to his wife, but intercepted by . General 
Buell and sent to General Garfield, in which he stated that he 
had five thousand effective men in his command. This letter the 
generar refrained from showing to his ofiicers and men until 
after the victory. His commission as brigadier dates from the 
day of the battle at Prestonburg. 

General Garfield now moved his force to Piketon, Kentucky, 
one hundred and twenty miles above the mouth of Big Sandy. 
Here he remained several weeks, sending out, meanwhile, expe- 
ditions in every direction wherever he could hear of a rebel 
camp or band, and at length completely clearing that whole 
country of the enemy. While thus employed, his provisions 
gave out, and, instead of sending, he went himself to the Oliio 
liiver for a new supply. The provisions were obtained, and a 
small steamer seized and loaded thercAvith. But now- a serious 
difficulty presented itself. The river was swollen by an unj)re- 
cedented freshet, and its navigation was extremely perilous. 
ISTo captain or pilot would take charge of the boat : it was an 
impossibility to navigate the Big Sandy with any thing in the 
shape of a boat; and they would not go. General Garfield, how- 
ever, was not to be balked in this way. Determined that the 
provisions should go through to his starving men, he took com- 



44 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

mand of the boat himself, and piloted her up the river, standing 
at the wheel one day and two nights. It was a perilous voyage 
up an untried stream full of eddies and currents, in which the 
little boat quivered and turned, at times threatening to make 
instant wreck of itself and all on board; but the indomitable 
energy of the general carried him safely through all these diffi- 
culties, and in due season himself and his cargo arrived safely 
at the camp, greatly to the joy of his suffering soldiery. 

About the middle of March he made his famous Pound Gap 
expedition, for a proper understanding of which a few words 
descriptive of the locality will be necessary. Pound Gap is a 
zigzag opening through the Cumberland Mountains into Virginia, 
leading into a track of fertile meadow-land lying between the 
base 'of the mountains and a stream called Pound Fork, which 
bends around the opening of the gap at some little distance from 
it, forming what is called " the Pound." These names originated 
in this wise. This mountain locality was for a long time the 
home of certain predatory Indians, from which they would make 
periodical forays into Virginia for plunder, and to which they 
would retreat as rapidly as they came, cai'rying with them the 
stolen cattle, which they would pasture in the meadow-land just 
mentioned. Hence among the settlers it became known as 
" the Pound," and from it the gap and stream took their names. 
After his defeat at Prestonburg, as has been stated, Humphrey 
Marshall retreated with his scattered forces through this gap 
into Virginia. A force of five hundred rebels was left to guard 
the pass against any sudden incursion of General Garfield's force, 
who, to make assurance doubly sure, had built directly across 
the gap a formidable breastwork, completely blocking up the 
way, and behind which five hundred men could resist the attack of 
as many thousand. Behind these works, and on the southeastern 
slope of the mountains, they had erected commodious cabins for 
winter quarters, where they, spent their time in ease and com- 
fort, occasionally — by way of variety, and in imitation of their 
Indian predecessors — descending from their stronghold into Ken- 
tucky, greatly to the damage of the stock-yards and larders of 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL GARFIELD. 45 

the well-to-do farmers of that vicinity, and to the fright of their 
wives and children. 

General Garfield determined to dislodge them f^-om their 
position and so put an end to their marauding expeditions. He 
accordingly set out with a sufficient force, and, after two days' 
forced march, reached the base of the mountains a short distance 
above the gap. Of the strength of the rebels and their position 
he had been well informed by the spies he had sent out, who had 
penetrated to their very camp, in the absence of the usual pickets, 
which were never thrown out by them, so secure did they feel 
in their mountain-fortress. It would have been madness to 
enter the gap and attack them in front; and the general did not 
propose or attemjjt it. Halting at the foot of the mountains for 
the night, he sent his cavalry early next morning to the mouth 
of the gap, to menace the rebels and draw them from behind 
their defences. This they did, arriving at a given time and 
threatening an attack. The rebels jumped at the bait, and at 
once came out to meet them, our men rapidly retreating, and the 
rebels following until the latter were some distance in front of 
their breastworks instead of behind them. Meantime, General 
Garfield with his infantry had scaled the mountain-side, in the 
face of a blinding snow-storm, and, marching along a nari-ow 
ridge on the summit, had reached the enemy's camp in the rear 
of his fortifications. A vigorous attack was now made, resulting 
in the complete rout of the rebels, many of whom were killed, 
wounded, or taken jirisoners, and the remainder dispersed 
through the mountains. The general now reassembled his 
forces and spent a comfortable night in the enemy's quarters, 
faring sumptuously upon the viands there found. The next 
morning the cabins, sixty in number, were burned, the breast- 
works destroyed, and the general set out on his return to Piketon, 
which he reached the following night, having been absent four 
days, and having marched in that time about one hundred miles 
over a rough and broken country. 

On his return, he received orders from General Buell, at Nash- 
ville, to report to him in person. Arriving at that place, he found 



46 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

that Buell Lad already begun his march towards Pittsburg 
Landing, and pushed on after him. Overtaking the army, he 
was placed in command of the 20th Brigade, and with his 
command participated in the second day's fight at Shiloh. 
He was pr<?sent through all the operations in front of Corinth, 
and, after the evacuation of that place, rebuilt with his brigade 
the bridges on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad and erected 
fortifications at Stevenson. Throughout the months of July and 
August he was prostrated by a severe sickness, and, consequently, 
was not in the retreat to Kentucky or the battles fought in'^that 
State. During his illness he was assigned to the command of 
the forces at Cumberland Gap, but could not assume it. Upon 
his recovery he was ordered to "Washington and detailed as a 
member of the Fitz-John Porter court-martial, which occupied 
forty-five daj'S, and in which his great abilities as a lawyer and 
a soldier were called forth and freely recognized. When the 
court adjourned, he was ordered to report to General Eosecrans, 
and by him was j)laced in the responsible joosition of chief of 
staff, though at first it had been intended to give him only the 
command of a division in the field. With the selection thus made 
universal satisfaction is everywhere expressed. Possessed of 
sound natural sense, an excellent judgment, a highly-cultivated 
intellect, and the deserved repxitation of a successful military 
leader, he is not only the Mentor of the staff, but his opinions 
are sought and his counsels heeded by many who are older and 
not less distinguished than himself. 

In September, 1861, General Garfield was nominated by the 
Union Convention of the Nineteenth- Congressional District of 
Ohio as its candidate for member of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, 
and at the election in October was chosen by a majority of over 
six thousand votes. 

Thus, at the age of thirty-one, the poor orjDhan boy, without 
the aid of wealth or of influential relatives, has achieved a 
position of which any American citizen might well be proud. 
The record of his life and labors fitly tells the story of his 
worth. "What the author could truly say in addition is perhaps 



LIEUTENANT-COLONEL C. GODDARD. 47 

better said by his friends of longer acquaintance. The editor of 
the Xenia " Torchlight," a paper published in his Ohio home, thus 
speaks of him upon the occasion of his assignment to the Army 
of the Cumberland and his selection by General Eosecrans as his 
chief of staff : — 

" We have known General James A. Garfield for several years, and 
entertain for him the highest personal regard. He is one of the most elo- 
quent men in Ohio, as well as one of the ripest scholars. Socially and 
morally he has no superior. He is popular with all, as the attachment of 
his scholars, as well as his soldiers, for him demonstrates. 

. " In respect to abilities, nature has by no means been unfriendly to him ; 
and he has neither despised nor slighted her gifts. A severe course of 
mental training, combined with the mental practice obtained by presiding 
over one of the colleges of Ohio, has fully developed his natural endowments. 
"Above all these considerations, everyone respects General Garfield for 
his stern, unyielding, uncompromising patriotism. The permanent good of 
his country, the restoration of its unity, and the perpetuation of the national 
power and glory through all coming time, are the objects which he keeps 
steadily in view." 

Lieutenant-Colonel C. Godpard, Assista^it Adjutant-General, 
was born at Norwich, Connecticut, February 9, 1838. In 1851 
he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he engaged in com- 
mercial jnirsuits. Soon after the attack on Port Sumter, he 
went to Columbus, to assist in organizing the State troops, and 
remained engaged in that duty and in paying troops in the 
service of the State until December, 1861. He then received a 
commission as first lieutenant in the 12th Ohio VoliTnteer 
Infantry, and was detailed as aide-de-camp upon the staff of 
General Eosecrans in Western Virginia. Lieutenant Goddard 
afterwards accompanied the general to Mississippi, and there 
served as acting assistant adjutant-general, participating in 
the battles of luka and Corinth. Following General Eosecrans 
to the Department of the Cumberland, he was appointed major 
and aide-de-camp, and served until subsequent to the battle of 
Stone Eiver as acting assistant adjutant-general. Soon after 
this battle he was appointed, upon the special recommendation 
of General Eosecrans, assistant adjutant-general, with the rank 
of lieutenant-colonel. 



48 ARMY OF THE CUaiBERLAND. 

Colonel James Barnett, Chief of Artillery. See '• The Artil- 
lery Service," post. 

Arthur Charles Ducat, Lieutenant- Colonel, and Inspector- 
General of the Department of the Cumberland, is a native of Dublin, 
Ireland, born in February, 1832, and is the youngest son of the 
late M. M. Ducat, Esq., of Newlawn, county Dublin. In 1851 
he came to New York and engaged in civil engineering, w^hich 
profession he pursued, until about seven years ago, throughout 
the Northwest. He was then appointed Secretary and Chief 
Surveyor of the Board of Underwriters at Chicago, which posi- 
tion he held until the breaking out of the war, when ^^s raised 
an engineer corps, which was not accepted by the Government. 
lie thereupon entered the service as a private in the 12th Illinois 
Eegiment, which was raised as a three-months regiment under 
the first call for troops. His regiment was one of those which 
first occupied Cairo under General Prentiss. In May, 1861, he was 
appointed second lieutenant and adjutant, and August 1, became 
captain of Co. A in the same regiment. During this period he 
served in the occupation of Caii-o, Bird's Point, and the reinforce- 
ment of Cape Girardeau. He afterwards went to Paducah, and 
was engaged in the demonstration upon Columbus made by Gene- 
i-al C. F. Smith at the time of the battle of Belmont. In November, 
1861, he was appointed major of his regiment. Participating in 
the battles of Port Henry and Fort Donelson, he was promoted 
to a lieutenant-colonelcy for meritorious services at the latter, 
and, though severely injured by a shell, he advanced with his 
regiment upon Clarksville and Nashville, and thence down the 
Cumberland and up the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing, where 
he was taken dangerously ill, and was sent down the river to hos- 
pital at Paducah, where he lay for months. Upon his recovery 
he was appointed chief of grand guards and outposts for 
the army. In the battle of luka he was attached to General 
Ord's column, and was senior officer on his staff", and afterwards 
took part in the battle of Corinth and the pursuit of the 
enemy. Soon after this he was assigned to General Eosecrane 



SURGEON GROVER PERRIN. 49 

as chief of staff, and upon the subsequent assignment of Colonel 
Garesche to the same position was appointed inspector-general. 
"When General Rosecrans was ordered to Kentucky, he accom- 
panied him to Bowling Green, and thence to Nashville. At this 
place he was attacked by a severe sickness in December, 1862, 
and compelled to return home on indefinite leave of absence. 
Recovering partially, he rejoined the army at Murfrcesborough, 
about the 1st of April, 1863, still in a delicate state of health, 
but performing his military duties with commendable ardor and 
alacrity. 

Lieutenant-Colonel John "W. Taylor, Chief Quartermaster. 
See " Quartermaster's Department," post. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Simmons, Chief Commissary. See 
" Commissary Department," post. 

Lieutenant-Colonel "William P. Hepburn, Inspector of Ca- 
valry., "was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, November 24, 1833^ 
and emigrated to Iowa in 1840. In May, 1861, he entered the 
service of the State of loAva as a second lieutenant, and in 
August of the same year was mustered into the service of the 
"United States as a captain in the 2d Iowa Cavalry. In Sep- 
tember, 1861, he was promoted major, and lieutenant-colonel in 
November, 1862. "With the army of the Mississippi he was 
present during the operations at New Madrid, Island No. 10, 
Tiptonville, and Fort Pillow, and participated in the battles of 
Farming-ton, Blackland, Booneville, luka, and Corinth. In June, 
1862, he was appointed inspector of cavalry for the Army of the 
Mississippi, and during November and a part of December of the 
same year he was acting judge-advocate of the Army of the 
Cumberland. In the latter part of December he was appointed 
inspector of cavalry for the department. 

Surgeon Grover Perrin, Medical Director, was born in Cler- 
mont county, Ohio, in November, 1823. He was educated at 



50 AftMY Of TfiE ClTxMBERLAN'D, 

the "Woodward High School in Cincinnati, and graduated at tho 
Ohio Medical College, in the same city, in 1846. In 1847 he 
entered the Eegnlar Army as a surgeon, and served during the 
Mexican War, and subsequently upon the frontier until the 
beginning of the rebellion. He was assigned and reported to 
General Rpsecrans as medical director of the Department of the 
Cumberland, February 21, 1863, 

Major W. H. Sidell, A. A. G., and Chief Mustering and Dis- 
bursing Officer, is a native of New York City, and a graduate of 
West Point of the class of 1833. He graduated with high 
honor, but soon left the army to adopt the profession of civil 
-engineer, in which capacity he has been engaged on many im- 
?portant works. When the Mexican War broke out, he volun- 
teered in the 4th Kew York Eegiment, and held the commission 
•of captain ; but the regiment, though fully recruited and ready 
'to move at a day's notice, was not called upon. At the opening 
of the rebellion he accepted the commission of major in the 
15th Eegular United States Infantry. When stationed at New- 
port Barracks in Kentucky, while the regiment was recruiting, 
Major Sideli was ordered to Louisville, to receive into the ser- 
vice of the United States the small force of loyal Kentuekians 
raised by General Rousseau, and accompanied that force to the 
field when called out from its camp of rendezvous to rej^el the 
invasion of the rebel Genei-al Buckner in September, 1861. 
After this he was ma-de chief mustering and disbursing officer 
of the department, and subsequently general superintendent of 
volunteer recruiting for Kentucky. From the latter position 
he was relieved in March, 1862, and ordered to join General 
Buell on his staff as mustering officer, which he did. In July 
he w^as detailed by him as his acting assistant adjutant-general, 
.and was ordered to take post at Nashville, where he remained 
on that duty as long as General Buell retained command of the 
.army, during which time the city was closely invested by the 
enemy, remaining so until the advance-guard of the army then 
lunder General Rosecrans's command entered the city. 



MAJOR PRANK S. BOND. 51 

General Eosecrans renewed the detail, retaining him to act 
as assistant adjutant-general until March 19, 1863, when he was 
relieved as such, but continued as chief mustering and dis- 
bursing officer. As adjutant-general at Nashville, his position 
was one of great trust and responsibility, the city being belea- 
guered and incessantly threatened, and for a long time cut off 
from all communication. The adjutant of a general command- 
ing is always an irnportant officer, especially when separated 
from his commander; for then he must himself do for him what- 
ever, under the regulations, he believes the general himself would 
order done, were he present, in all things not immediately under 
the control of the commander of the post or garrison. In the 
discharge of these onerous duties, Major Sidell was discreet and 
zealous, ready to co-operate with and aid the efforts of others. 

By the mustering officer all the complicated conditions in regard 
to the terms on which officers and men are received into the United 
States service have to be adjudicated. As these terms affect the 
rank, immunities, and obligations of volunteers in their relations 
towards each other, as well as towards the Government, the 
decisions require knowledge of the laws and orders and dis- 
cretion in applying them. Major Sidell is regarded at Nashville 
as chief authority in all these matters, and his decisions are 
rarely reversed in "Washington. 

Quite recently Major Sidell has received the appointment of 
assistant provost-marshal general for the State of Kentucky, a 
position he is eminently qualified to fill, from his long experience 
as a mustering officer, coupled with his energy, literary attain- 
ment, and business tact. 

Major and Aide-de-Camp Frank S. Bond is a native of Massa- 
chusetts, and was born in February, 1830. His youth was spent 
in Connecticut, and he early engaged in business connected with 
the railroads. For four or five years he was secretary and trea- 
surer of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, and after- 
wards went to New York in a similar capacity for several Penn- 
sylvania roads. When the war began, he was secretary of the 



82 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Almaden Quicksilver Mining Company. In March, 1862, he was 
appointed a first lieutenant in the 10th Connecticut Yolunteers, but 
never served with the regiment, the commission having been 
given him that he might occupy a position on the staff of Bri- 
gadier-General Tyler, with whom he went "West. He was present 
at the siege of Corinth, and engaged in the battle of Farmington. 
December 15, 1862, he was assigned to General Eosecrans as 
acting aide-de camp, and went with him td Bowling Green and 
Nashville. In the battle of Stone Eiver, as a member of the 
general's staff, he was present on the field during the entire 
contest, discharging his perilous duties in the most gallant manner . 
After this battle he was promoted to his present position. 

Major "William M. "Wiles, Provost-Marshal General. See 
" Provost-Marshal General's Department," ;post. 

Captain Elias Cosper, First Assistant Frovost-Marshal Gene- 
ral. See " Provost-Marshal General's Department," post. 

Captain Egbert M. Goodwin, Second Assistant Provost-Mar- 
shal General. See " Provost-Marshal General's Department," jpost. 

Captain Hunter Brooke, Acting Judge-Advocate of the De- 
partment, was born in the District of Columbia, is thirty-two 
years of age, and has resided for twenty-five years in Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. He is a practising lawyer, which profession he 
entered in 1851, and has spent several years in political life, 
in the State Legislature and other public capacities. 

At the breaking out of the war, he Avas temporarily residing 
in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he had gone on account of the 
health of his family, and entered the army as a private in the 
2d Eegiment of Minnesota Volunteers. After serving three 
months at Fort Eidgely, Minnesota, in November, 1861, he 
joined his regiment at Lebanon Junction, Kentucky. In De- 
cember, 1861, he was selected by General Eobert L. McCook, 
and by special permission acted as "volunteer aide-de-camp" 



CAPTAIN CHARLES R. THOMPSON. 5S 

upon the general's staff, which position he held during th? 
winter campaign in Kentucky, and at the battle of Mill Spring, 
After this battle, he was appointed, by the President, additional 
aide-de-camp to JMajor-General Halleck, and assigned to duty with 
General R. L. McCook, with whom he remained during the 
spring and summer campaign in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missis- 
sippi, and Alabama. 

On the 5th day of August, 1862, he was riding with General 
McCook in an ambulance, engaged in nursing him, and was by 
his side when he was brutally murdered by guerrillas near New 
Market, Madison county, Alabama. Captain Brooke was taken 
prisoner, and was released upon parole about the last of August. 
He reported to General Buell, and by him was ordered to report 
at Camp Chase, Ohio. In December, 1862, he was exchanged, and 
reported to Major-General Wright, at Cincinnati. In February 
he was ordered to report to Major-General Rosecrans for staff 
duty, and was assigned as aide-de-camp. Major Skinner, deputy 
judge-advocate, having soon afterwards been temporarily relieved 
from duty on account of ill health. Captain Brooke was detailed 
to the position, and is still acting in that capacity. 

Captain and Aide-de-Camp Charles E. Thompson was born 
in Bath, Maine, February 24, 1840. For sevwal years he re- 
sided in California, when, returning East as far as St. Louis, he 
engaged in mercantile pursuits in that city. He volunteered, Oc- 
tober 1, 1861, as a private, in the Engineer Regiment of the West, 
Missouri Yolunteers. Under General Fremont, he accompanied 
the army to Warsaw, Missouri, and was appointed first lieute- 
nant November 1. He was afterwards present at the battle of 
New Madrid and the siege of Island No. 10, assisting in cutting 
the famous canal which led to the capture of the entire rebel 
force. He accompanied Pope's command up the Tennessee 
River and in the advance upon Corinth. June 1, 1862, he was 
appointed post quartermaster at Hamburg, Tennessee, where 
he remained until August 15, when he was relieved and appointed 
ordnance officer of the Army of the Mississippi, then under the 



64 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

commar.d of General Eosecrans. At the battle of Corinth he 
was present in his capacity of ordnance officer, and acted as 
aide-de-camp to General Eosecrans. For meritorious service in 
this battle he was, upon the recommendation of the general, 
appointed captain and aide upon his staff. He accompanied 
General Eosecrans to the Army of the Cumberland, and, in the 
2)erformance of his duty, acted a gallant and conspicuous part 
at the battle of Stone Eiver. 

Captain James P. Drouillard, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Gallipolis, Gallia county, Ohio, and entered the U. S. Military 
Academy in June, 1857, graduating July 1, 1861. He chose the 
infantry corps, on account of more rapid promotion during the 
war, and was assigned as second lieutenant to the 6th Eegiment 
United States Infantry. Ordered to report to the Secretary of 
"War, he was placed on duty under General Mansfield, command- 
ing the Department of "Washington, as instructor of volunteers. 
Desiring to participate in the active operations then about to be 
initiated, he was ordered to report to General McDowell, com- 
manding the Army of the Potomac, and was assigned by him 
to the battalion of regulars under command of Major Sykes, 
and remained in this position during the campaign which 
terminated in the memorable battle of Bull Eun. 

After the concentration of all the regular troops in "Wash- 
ington as a city guard, he was made adjutant of the 3d United 
State's Infantry, which position he held until the promotion of 
Major Sykes to a brigadier-generalship of volunteers, when he 
was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the infantry of the 
city guard. In this capacity he served until December 20, 1861, 
when, upon the solicitation of General McDowell, he was made 
aide-de-camp upon the staff of that general. "While acting thus, 
he accompanied, as a volunteer, the expedition of General Augur, 
which resulted in the ca-pture of Falmouth and Fredericksburg. 
On the 25th of May, 1862, upon the recommendation of General 
McDowell, he received from the "War Department the appoint- 
ment of additional aide-de-camp, with the rank of captain. 



LIEUTENANT C. M. BRA2EE. 55 

He remained with General McDowell throughout his cam- 
paign with the Army of the Eappahannock, and subsequently 
with the Army of Virginia, under General Pope. When General 
McDowell was I'elieved of command, Captain Drouillard did not 
abandon him, but remained by his side until the tennination of 
the coui't of inquiry, resulting in an honorable acquittal of all 
charges ; when, desiring active service in the field, ihs captain 
was, upon the request of General Eoseerans, commanding the 
Department of the Cumberland, transferred to his staff as aide- 
de-camp. 

Captain Horace Porter, Chief Ordnance Officer. See " The 
Artillery Service," post. 

Lieutenant C. M. Brazee, Acting Assistant Quartermaster, was 
born in the State of New York, March 10, 1832. In 1857 he 
settled in Eockford, Illinois. Soon after he commenced the 
Btudy of law, and was admitted to practice December 29, 1859, 
August 2, 1862, he entered the service, and on the 9th of the 
same month was promoted to a first lieutenancy in Company C, 
74th Illinois Volunteers. Serving with his regiment in Buell's 
North Alabama campaign, he was detailed from the regiment 
with twenty-two men into the Pioneer Brigade, 2d Battalion, 
November 30, 1862. Here he was constantly on duty until after 
the battle of Stone Elver, when he was sick for some weeks, the 
result of exposure. On the 8th of February, 1863, he was 
ordered to report to department head-quarters, and assigned to 
duty upon the staff of General Eoseerans as acting assistant 
quartermaster. 



Pajor-(icncral (^m^t 1. ihomas and ^ 

George H. Thomas, Major-General of Volunteers, and Colonel 
of the 5th United States Eegular Cavalry, commanding the 14th 
Army Corps, was born in Southampton county, Virginia, July 31, 
1816. His father, John Thomas, was of English, and his mother, 
Elizabeth Eoehelle, of Huguenot, descent, — both of respectable 
and wealthy families. Eeceiving a fair education, he accepted 
the position of deputy to his uncle, James Eoehelle, clerk of the 
county, and soon after began the study of the law. Through 
the influence of family friends, he received, in the spring of 1836, 
an appointment as cadet, and entered the U. S. Military Academy 
at West Point the following June. Continuing through the 
entire course, he graduated twelfth in a class of forty-five, June 
20, 1840, and on the 1st of July was appointed second lieutenant 
in the 3d Artillery. In November of the same year he joined 
his regiment in Florida, eighteen months previous to the termi- 
nation of the First Florida "War. November 6, 1841, he was bre- 
vetted first lieutenant " for gallant conduct in the war against 
the Florida Indians." The regiment having been ordered from 
Florida in January, 1842, Lieutenant Thomas went with his 
company to New Oi'leans barracks, and in June of the same 
year to Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor. Eemaining there 
until December, 1843, he was ordered to duty with Company C, 
od Light Artillery, then stationed at Fort McHenry, Maryland. 
May 17, 1843, he was promoted first lieutenant of artillery, and 
in the spring of 1844 joined Company E, 3d Artillery, at Fort 
Moultrie. 

War with Mexico being now threatened. Lieutenant Thomas 
was ordered with his company to Texas, in July, 1845, to report 
for duty to General Zacliary Taylor. The company arrived at 



^^^^^^aiBALTSo^^^ 




MAJOR-GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. 57 

Corpus Christi the same month, in company with the 3d and 4th 
regiments of infantry, they being the first United States troops 
that occupied the soil of Texas. With the army of occupation 
his company marched from Corpus Christi to the Eio Grande, 
and, with one company of the 1st Artillery and six companies 
of the 7th United States Infantry, was left to garrison Fort 
Brown, opposite Matamoras, while General Taylor, with the 
main body of his army, fell back to Point Isabel, there to esta- 
blish a depot of supplies. X)n the 2d of May, Fort Brown was 
invested by the Mexicans, and the garrison sustained a bombard- 
ment until the afternoon of the 8th, when the enemy withdrew 
to Resaca de la Palma to reinforce General Ampudia, who had 
the same day been driven from his position at Palo Alto by Gene- 
ral Taylor while marching to the relief of Fort Brown. On 
the 9th, General Taylor repulsed the Mexicans at Eesaca de la 
Palma, and drove them across the Eio Grande, the garrison at 
Fort Brown contributing to this decisive victory by pouring an 
unintermitted fire of shot and shell into the disordered masses 
of the retreating enemy as they rushed in hopeless confusion to 
the river to escape our advancing columns. After the evacua- 
tion of Matamoras, Lieutenant Thomas was detached from his 
company with a section of his battery and assigned to tempo- 
rary duty with the advance-guard, and remained stationed at 
Eeynosa from early in June until the latter part of July, when he 
was ordered with his section, still in the advance-guard, and the 
7th Infantry, to Camargo. In September, the main body having 
reached Camargo, he rejoined his command and marched to 
Monterey. September 23, 1846, he was brevetted captain " for 
gallant conduct at the battle of Monterey," and about the 1st 
of November, on the promotion of Lieutenant Bragg to the cap- 
taincy of Company C, took command of Company E, as senior 
lieutenant, which position he retained until February 14, 1847. 
In December, 1846, he was again placed in the advance, with 
the brigade of General Quitman, and entered Yictoria about tho 
1st if January, 1847, General Taylor having started for the 
interior by way of Tampico. 



58 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

General Scott, having assumed command of tlie army in the 
field at Camargo, ordered General Taylor to select a division 
and with it occupy the country he had conquered. In accord- 
ance with these instructions, the latter general, with a squadron 
of the 2d Dragoons, Companies C and E 3d Artillery, the 1st 
Mississippi and the 1st Georgia Infantry, and General Wool's 
brigade, then stationed at Saltillo, returned to Monterey about 
the last of January, Soon afterwards Santa Anna advanced 
from San Luis Potosi, with a force outnumbering General 
Taylor's four to one. General Taylor pushed all his troops, 
except four regiments, towards Saltillo, and eventually took a 
strong position about five miles south of that place. Here, on 
the 21st of February, was fought the bloody and decisive battle 
of Buena Vista, resulting in the overwhelming defeat of Santa 
Anna and the dispersion of his army. In this battle Lieutenant 
Thomas actively participated, and for gallant and meritorious 
services therein was brevetted major, February 23, 1847. He 
remained in Mexico on duty until August 20, 1848, when his 
company recrossed the Eio Grande into Texas, among the last 
to leave, as it had been among the first to enter, the Mexican 
territory. About the 1st of September he was ordered to 
Brazos Santiago, to take charge of the commissar'y depot 
at that place, and remained there until December, when his 
company was ordered to Fort Adams, Ehode Island, and he 
was relieved in order to join it at that jjlace, which he did, 
at the expiration of a six-months leave of absence. July 31, 
1849, he was placed in command of Company B, 3d Artillery, 
and in September of the same year was ordered to Florida 
with his company, hostilities having again broken out between 
the Indians and settlers in the southern part of that State. 
Eemaining on duty in Florida until December, 1850, he re- 
ceived orders for Texas, but on arriving at New Orleans, on 
his way thither, found awaiting him there later orders for Bos- 
ton harbor. He reached Fort Independence January 1, 1851, 
where he remained until March 28, when he was relieved by 
Captain Ord, and assigned to duty at West Point as Instructor of 



MAJOR-GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. 59 

Artillery and Cavalry. This position he retained from April 1, 
1851, until May 31, 1854, having been promoted, meanwhile, 
December 24, 1853, to a captaincy in the od Artillery. 

Captain Thomas, on leaving West Point, took command of a 
battalion of artillery, and conducted it to California by way '^f 
Panama. Arriving at Benicia Barracks June 1, 1854, he was 
assigned to Fort Yuma, in Lower California, and, reaching that 
place July 15. with two companies of artillery, relieved Major 
Heintzelman of the command. Congress having increased the 
army by four regiments, two of infantry and two of cavalry, 
Captain Thomas received the appointment of junior major of 
the 2d Cavalry, and, leaving Fort Yuma July 18, 1855, joined 
his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, early in the fol- 
lowing September. The regiment was ordered to Texas, and 
Major Thomas remained on duty there from May 1, 1856, to 
November 1, 1860, when he left Camp Cooper on a leave of 
absence. During this time he was for three years in command 
of the regiment, and in August, 1859, headed the escort which 
accompanied the Texas Reserve Indians from that State to their 
new home in the Indian Territory. Immediately after this he 
was ordered to examine the country on the head-waters of the 
Canadian and Eed Rivers. He was absent on this service several 
months, and collected much valuable information concerning the 
geography of that region, having passed over a route north of 
the Canadian which previously had been entirely unknown. In 
the summer of 1860 he commanded another expedition to the 
head-waters of the Conchas, on which, besides obtaining much 
geographical knowledge, he fell in with a party of predatory 
Indians, and recaptured from them all the animals they had 
stolen from the settlements. In the skirmish on this occasion, 
August 26, 1860, he was slightly wounded in the face. 

In April, 1861, Major Thomas was ordered to Carlisle Barracks, 
Pa., to remount the 2d Cavalry, which had been dismounted and 
ordered out of Texas by General Twiggs. Four companies were 
equipped at once and sent to "Washington to join the two that had 
preceded them thither. The remaining four were assigned to the 



60 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Department of Pennsylvania, and Major Thomas was ordered to 
report to its commander, which he did on the 1st of May, 1861, at 
Greencastle, Pennsylvania. April 25, 1861, he was promoted 
lieutenant-colonel, and colonel May 3. From May until July he 
commanded the first brigade of Majoi"-General Patterson's army 
in Northern Virginia, and subsequently under Major-General 
Banks until August 26. August 17 he was appointed a 
brigadier-general of volunteers, and on the 26th was relieved 
from duty in the Army of Northern Virginia, and ordered to 
report to Brigadier-General Robert Anderson, commanding the 
Department of the Cumberland. Arriving at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, September 6, General Thomas was assigned to the 
command of Camp Dick Eobinson, fifteen miles southeast of 
Nicholasville, Kentucky, which he reached September 15, and 
i-elieved Lieutenant Nelson, U.S.N, (subsequently Major-General 
Nelson, U.S.V.), who had organized the camp and by his 
energy and boldness had assembled there over six thousand Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee troops. Zollicoffer had invaded Kentucky'- 
by way of Cumberland Gap; and General Thomas began making 
vigorous preparations to meet him and thwart his designs. Four 
regiments of infantry, a battalion of artillery, and Woolford's 
cavalry, under the command of Brigadier-General Schoepf, were 
sent to Rockcastle Hills, thirty miles southeast of Camp Dick 
Robinson, where was established Camp Wildcat. Brigadier- 
General W. T. Sherman, having been appointed to the command 
of the department in place of General Anderson, who was re- 
lieved at his own request on account of ill health, visited Camp 
Dick Robinson- soon after, and expressed much satisfaction with 
the dispositions made to resist the advance of the rebels. The 
result of these movements was the battle of \Yildcat, fought 
October 26, in which Zollicoffer was completel}^ routed and 
driven back to Cumberland Gap by our troops, under the personal 
command of General Schoepf. 

Immediately after the battle of Wildcat, General Thomas 
moved his head-quarters to Crab Orchard and began prepara- 
tions for an advance into East Tennessee; but, the enemy having 



MAJOR-GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. ^ 

assembled a large force at Bowling Green, the department com- 
mander ordered General Thomas to move with his force, except 
one Kentucky regiment and the two East Tennessee regiments, 
to Lebanon, Kentucky, and be in readiness for an active cam- 
paign. Under these orders. General Thomas marched to Lebanon 
and there organized the first division of the Army of the Cum- 
berland. Immediately on the arrival of the troops at that place, 
it being reported that Zollicoffer had advanced to Monticello, 
Wayne county, and was threatening Somerset, General Schoepf 
was ordered to the latter place with a battery of artillery and two 
regiments of infantiy, to prevent him from crossing the Cumber- 
land. Two days afterwards two additional regiments and an- 
other battery were ordered to reinforce Schoepf; but Zollicoffer 
had succeeded in crossing the Cumberland with about eight 
thousand men, and established himself on the north side, opposite 
Mill Spring. General Thomas had his command in readiness to 
take the field by December 31, and on that day left Lebanon 
under orders from Brigadier-General Buell to march against Zolli- 
coffer and dislodge him from his intrenchments if he should not 
come out to meet the combined forces of Schoepf and Thomas. 
After a most laborious march of nineteen days, over roads made 
almost impassable by heavy rains, General Thomas reached a 
point ten miles north of Mill Spring, called Logan's Cross-Eoads, 
with the 9th Ohio, 2d Minnesota, 10th Indiana, and 4th Ken- 
tucky Regiments of infantry, Kenny's battery of the 1st Ohio 
Artillery, "Woolford's regiment of Kentucky Cavalry, and four 
companies of the Ist Michigan Engineers. Here he halted to 
await the arrival of the 14th Ohio and the 10th Kentucky, and 
to communicate with General Schoepf at Somerset and arrange 
for a combined movement upon the enemy's intrenchments. 

The preliminary arrangements were made on Saturday, and 
the troops were to move on Monday, the 20th. But the enemy, 
having received information that only two regiments had 
succeeded in reaching Logan's Cross -Roads, and that the re- 
mainder were still behind, exhausted and discouraged by the 
difficulties which they had encountered left his intrenchments 



62 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

on the evening of Saturday, the 18th, with the evident intention 
of surprising and overwhelming the small force at Logan's, and 
encountered the Federal pickets at daylight on the morning of 
the 19th, driving them in rapidly. Two regiments — the 10th 
Indiana and 4th Kentucky — were quickly formed, and advanced 
into a wood about half a mile in front of Logan's. This position 
was held against a desperate assault of the enemy's advance 
until the arrival of the 9th Ohio and 2d Minnesota, when the 
battle was renewed by these two fresh regimeaits attacking 
the rebels in front, while the 12th Kentucky and 1st and 2d East 
Tennessee advanced on their right and rear. . The contest raged 
violently for half an hour, until the 9th Ohio routed the enemy's 
left at the point of the bayonet, their riglit being simultaneously 
attacked by the 12th Kentucky. The advance fell back in con- 
fusion behind their reserves, and the rebels began a rapid and 
disorderly retreat towai-ds their intrenehments. As soon as our 
troops could retill their cartridge-boxes, the enemy were pui*sued 
to their intrenehments, and prepai-ations were made to storm 
them the following morning. But when morning came it was 
found that they had fled during the night, abandoning their pro- 
visions, artillery, ammunition, wagons, cavalry, horse and camp 
equipage of every kind. The rout was complete, and its 
demoralizing effect so great that many men of wealth in Middle 
Tennessee removed their slaves and household effects to Alabama 
and Mississippi, without waiting to hear of new disasters. The 
enemy's loss in killed and wounded in the battle and during the 
reti"eat was very heavy, including among the former Brigadier- 
General Zollicoffer. 

Immediately after the battle of Logan's Ci"oss-Eoads. or. as it 
is more generally called. Mill Spring, General Tliomas concen- 
trated his command at Somei'set and entered upon active pre- 
parations for a move into East Tennessee, and had neai-ly 
accumulated a sufficient amount of subsistence for that expe- 
dition when he i-eceived orders to move with all possible 
despatch to Lebanon, and thence to Munfoixlsville, General 
Buell intending to concentrate his forces at that place and move 



MAJOR-GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. 63 

immediately upon Bowling Green. Before the troops could bo 
aHsemblcd, however, the enemy had lost Forts Henry and Donel- 
Ron, and evacuated Bowling Green and Nashville, retreating by 
different routes through Tennessee, and eventually reassembling 
in front of Coriiitli, Mississippi. On the march to Munfords- 
\'iilc, General Tiiomas received orders to proceed with his divi- 
sion to Louisville, there to take steamers and go to iS'ashville, 
which he did, reaching the latter city on the 2d of March, 
with his division in readiness to take the field. But it con- 
stituted the reserve of the Army of the Cumberland, and 
remained as such until May 1, when the advance from Pitts- 
burg Landing upon Corinth began. As soon as the troops 
could be supplied with clothing, and the trains fitted up, General 
Buell began his march to Pittsburg Landing, a portion of his 
army reaching that place in time to participate in the battle of 
Shiloh. General Thomas's division, being in reserve, did not 
reach the battle-ground until after the retreat of the enemy. 

April 25, 18G2, Brigadier-General Thomas was appointed 
and confirmed major-general of volunteers, and on the 1st of 
May his division was transferred to the Army of Tennessee, ho 
being assigned by General Halleck to the command of the right 
wing of that army, consisting of Brigadier-General T. W. Sher- 
man's division (the old Ist Division), Brigadier-General W. T 
Sherman's division, Brigadier-General S. A. ITurlbut's division, 
Brigadier-General T. J. McKean's division, and Brigadier-Gene- 
ral Thomas A. Davies's division. He continued in command 
until the evacuation of Corinth by the rebels, when his division 
was stationed along the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, from 
luka, Mississippi, to Tuscumbia, Alabama, for its protection. On 
the 10th of June he was re-transfejred to the Army of the Ohio 
(the first Army of the Cumberland), and about the Ist of 
August was ordered to concentrate his command at Dechard, 
Tennessee, at which place he arrived about the Gth and remained 
Avith his division several days. Leaving his command here in 
temporary charge of General Schoepf, he proceeded to McMinn- 
ville, to take charge of the divisions of (Jenerals Nelson and 



64 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Hood at that place. September 3, he left McMinnville, having 
received orders from General Buell to join him with his forces 
at Murfreesboroiigh, the rebel cavalry having destroyed the Louis- 
ville & JSTashville Eailroad and blown up the tunnels near Gal- 
latin, Tennessee, thus rendering a backward movement necessary. 
On arriving at Murfreesborough, he found that General Buell 
had already gone to Nashville, leaving orders for the army to 
follow him. Eeaching Nashville on the 8th, General Thomas 
was at once put ifi command of the post. The next day General 
Buell, having already pushed forward a portion of his troojis, 
set out for Kentucky. On the evening of the 13th, General 
Thomas received orders to follow, and at four o'clock on the 
evening of the 15th started with his division, leaving at Nash- 
ville the divisions of Generals Negley and Palmer, the whole 
under command of the former. Joining Buell at Prewitt's Knob, 
near Cave City, on the 19th, he was made second in command 
of the entire army. Approaching Munfordsville, it was expected 
that Bragg would make a stand there, and preparations were 
made for a battle; but the enemy were soon found to be retreat- 
ing, and the march was resumed on the 23d, and in three days 
the army reached Louisville. 

On the 29th, the Army of the Ohio was divided into three 
corps, under Generals McCook, Crittenden, and Gilbert, General 
Thomas still remaining second in command of the whole. On 
the 1st of October the army left Louisville for Bardstown, where 
the rebel army was encamped, their cavalry vedettes extending 
to within five miles of Louisville. As Buell advanced, Bragg 
retreated, evacuating Bardstown after a slight skirmish. The 
rebel forces making a stand at Ilarrodsburg and Perryville, a 
severe battle was fought, principally by General McCook. com- 
manding the left wing, the right, under General Thomas, being 
engaged only in skirmishing. General Thomas accompanied 
the army in all its movements until it again concentrated at 
Bowling Green. When the command was assumed by Major- 
General Rosecrans, its name was again changed to the " Army 
of the Cumberland," and on the 5th of November General 



MAJOR-GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. 65 

Thomas was placed in command of the centre, 14th Army Corps, 
Department of the Cumberland, consisting of the 1st Division, 
Brigadier-General S. S. Fry commanding, the 3d Division, 
Major-General L. H. Eousseau commanding, the 8th Division, 
Brigadier-General J. S. Negley commanding, the 12th Divi- 
sion, Brigadier-General E. Dumont commanding, and the 13th 
Division, Brigadier-General J. M. Palmer commanding. In 
charge of his corps, General Thomas reached Nashville early in 
November, where he remained until the morning of the 26th of 
December, when the army advanced towards Murfreesboroiigh. 
In command of Eousseau's and Negley's divisions, he left Nash- 
ville on the morning of the 26th, moving on the right of McCook 
by the Franklin and Wilson pikes and falling in by cross-roads 
to Nolensville. During the whole of that terrible series of 
battles on Stone River, he was cool, active, and vigilant, cheer- 
ing on his men by voice and example, and sharing their dangers, 
and in the official reports of General Eosecrans is mentioned 
with especial commendation as " true and prudent, distinguished 
in council and on many battle-fields for his courage." 

Since the occupation of Murfreesborough,the Army of the Cum- 
berland having been divided into three army corps, — the 14th, 
20th, and 21st, — General Thomas has been in command of the 
14th Army Corps, comprising five divisions, under the command 
of Major-Generals L. H. Eousseau, Jas. S. Negley, and J. J. Eey- 
nolds, and Brigadier-Generals S. S. Fry and E. B. Mitchell. 

General Thomas's residence — the place of his birth — is now 
in possession of the rebels. In 1852 he was married to Miss 
Frances S. Kellogg, of Troy, '^ew York, and his wife now resides 
in New York City. Notwithstanding his many years of military 
service and active campaigning, he is still apparently in the 
prime of life. In personal appearance dignified and manly, in 
manners gentle and courteous, in habit temperate and virtuous, 
none " know him but to praise." His military and peraonal 
record is without a blot. Although a Virginian, he never fal- 
tered for a moment in his duty to his country to follow after the 
false gods of his native State and the South ; and let it ever be 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



remembered that it was he who won for our arms one of the 
first and most decisive victories of the present war, in front 
of Mill Spring, Kentucky. 



THE STAFF. 



Lieutenant-Colonel George E. Flynt, Assistant Adjutant- 
General, was born in Delaware county, New York. He received 
a mercantile education, and was engaged in trade until the year 
1853. In the following year he emigrated to Texas. During his 
residence in that State he was more or less, socially and in his 
business relations, connected with the United States Army there 
on duty. At the commencement of the rebellion he was present 
at Camp Cooper, on the Clear Fork of the Brazos Eiver, when it 
was surrendered to the Texas rebels. Having no sympathy 
with the revolutionists, he left Texas at the earliest moment, 
and arrived in "Western New York in June, 1861. At the request 
of Brigadier-General George H. Thomas, he was commissioned 
assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, August 31, 
1861, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Thomas, 
joining him at Camp Dick Eobinson. Cajitain Flynt was 
with General Thomas in his Kentucky campaign, being present 
in the decisive battle of Logan's Cross-Eoads (known as the 
battle of Mill Spring), and for his gallantry on that occasion 
was honorably mentioned in the . official report. At Shiloh, 
Major-General Thomas was placed in command of the right 
wing of the Army of Tennessee, and selected Captain Flynt as 
his chief of staff, he having been promoted major, by commission 
bearing date June 11, 1862, after the taking of Corinth. Major 
Flynt accompanied General Thomas when that officer was trans- 
ferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and with him partici- 
pated in the battle of Perryville. Major-General Eosecrans 
:having been assigned to the command of the Army of the Cum- 



LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ALEXANDER VON SCHRODER. 67 

berland, and Major-General Thomas being appointed to the com- 
mand of the centre, the subject of this sketch, as his assistant 
adjutant-general, was present with him at the battle of Stone 
Eiver. After the battle. General Thomas was placed at the 
head of the 14th Army Corps, and Major Flynt, for his prompt, 
eflficient, and gallant conduct, was called to the staff of this corps, 
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, which position he now fills. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Von Schroder, Assista7it 
Inspector- Greneral, was born at Blankenburg, in the Hartz Moun- 
tains, in 1821. His father, an old soldier, who had fought 
his way up from the ranks to a lieutenant-generalship, and for 
his bravery had been made a nobleman; thought no profession 
so fitting for his son as the one by which he himself had won 
honor and position ; and accordingly, in 1835, at the early age 
of fourteen, the latter entered the Prussian army as a cadet. 
Here he remained for two and a half years, when he entered 
the service of the Duke of Brunswick, and served three years 
as cadet and ensign. During this time he was either on active 
duty with his regiment or hard at study. In 1841 he was com- 
missioned as second lieutenant in the body-guard of the Duke 
of Bmnswick. This regiment was called " the schwarzen 
Jaeger," and their dress was black, with a skull and cross-bones 
as a distinctive badge. The organization was maintained in 
remembrance of Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick, who 
had ten thousand such troops, to raise and equip which he had 
sold all his possessions. 

In 1852, Lieutenant Von Schroder left Germany for England, 
where he remained some months, and then came to America. 
The following ten years were spent in various pursuits. At the 
beginning of the present war he was residing in Cincinnati. 
Having always been loyal to good government, he was ready 
to render his best service. He accordingly acted for a time 
as drill-master to the 18th Ohio Eegiment at Camp Dennison, and 
afterwards to the 73d Ohio Eegiment at Chillicothe. Subse- 
quently he was appointed major in the latter regiment, and on 



68 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

the 10th of December, 1861, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel 
in the 74th Ohio, and was mustered into the service from that 
date. The regiment was detailed to guard prisoners at Camp 
Chase for several months, and, Colonel Moody being post com- 
mander, Lieutenant-Colonel Von Schroder was in command of it 
during this time. Thence he proceeded, still commanding ofl&cer 
of the regiment, to Nashville, where he remained for about 
two months, imtil Colonel Moody, being relieved as post com- 
mander at Camp Chase, rejoined his regiment, which was shortly 
after attached to the command of Brigadier-General Negley, by 
whom Lieutenant-Colonel Yon Schroder was placed in charge 
of the troops guarding the railroad between Franklin and 
Columbia. In this position his soldierly abilities attracted the 
attention of his commanding general, who made application for 
his appointment on his own staff as division inspector. Upon 
General Negley's assuming command at Nashville, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Yon Schroder became inspector of the division and post, 
and so remained during the investment. He participated in 
the fight in front of the city, November 5, 1862, and, together 
with three other of General Negley's staff officers, led the cavalry 
charge upon the rebels, within four miles of Franklin. 

As inspector, Lieutenant-Colonel Yon Schroder discharged 
his important duty with unusual skill and fidelity; for which he 
was specially complimented in the following order from head- 
quarters : — 

" Special Order No. 2. 

"Head-Quarters 14th Army Corps, Department of the Cumberland. 
"Nashville, Tennessee, Nov. 19, 1862. 

" XII. The general commanding has read with great pleasure 
the favorable report of Lieutenant-Colonel Ducat, Assistant In- 
spector-General, upon the condition of the grand guards and 
pickets of the garrison of Nashville, on the recent inspection 
ordered from these head-quarters, without any notice to the 
troops. 

" The general compliments Lieutenant-Colonel Yon Schroder, 



LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ALEXANDER VON SCHRODER. 69 

the officer in charge of grand guards, the officers and men of 
the 2l8t Ohio and 27th Illinois Infantry, on duty the day of 
inspection. 

********* 

" By command of Major-General Rosecrans. 

" W. H. SlDELL, 

''Major \bth U.S. Infantry, and A. A. A. Gr 

On the 16th of December, 1862, he was assigned to General 
Thomas as acting assistant inspector-general of the 14th Army 
Corps, and was with him during the battle of Stone River, 
remaining by his side during that terrible conflict, exhibiting 
coolness and courage under most trjnng circumstances. After 
the battle, at the request of General Thomas, Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Von Schroder, by a special order from the War Department, 
was assigned to the staff of General Thomas as assistant inspector- 
general, which position he now fills. To this office he brings 
the experience of many years, and the same ability and faithful- 
ness which characterized his labors at Nashville. Only recently 
he was again complimented by General Eosecrans, in the follow- 
ing note to General Thomas : — 

Head-Quarters, Department of the Cumberland, April 19, 1863. 

" jVIajor-General Thomas, Commanding Wth Army Corps. 

" General : — ^Your picket-line, inspected under orders from 
these head-quarters, has recently been reported as in the best 
possible condition. 

" The major-general commanding desires to express to you 
his satisfaction, and to compliment Lieutenant-Colonel Yon 
Schroder, A.I.G. of your corps, upon the zeal and energy which 
he has displayed in the discharge of this duty. 
" Very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"William McMichael, 

" Major and A. A. G " 



70 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

Lieutenant-Colonel A. J. Mackay, Chief Quartermaster^ is a 
native of Livingston county, New York, of Scotch descent, and 
about thirty -three years of age. At the age of sixteen he emigrated 
to Texas while it was yet an independent republic, and remained 
there until the breaking out of the rebellion. In June, 1861, he 
returned to New York. October 7, 1861, he was appointed 
assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, and assigned 
to duty with General Thomas, then in command of Camp Dick 
Eobinson. He has since remained upon the staff, and has risen, 
gradually and by merit, to his present rank. Possessing rare 
business qualifications, he discharges the responsible duties of his 
office with general satisfaction. 

Lieutenant-Colonel James E. Paul, Chief Commissary^ was 
born and raised in Franklin county, Ohio, and now resides in 
the city of Columbus. Until twenty-eight years of age he was 
a farmer, and then engaged in the grain and produce business 
On the Slst of October, 1861, he was appointed by the Presi- 
dent a commissary of subsistence, with the rank of captain, and 
assigned to duty on the staff of General 0. M. Mitchel. In this 
position he remained until General Mitchel was ordered East, 
when, on the 4th of July, 1862, he was transferred to the staff 
of General Rousseau, and remained with him up to the time of 
the Stone Elver battle. Just before the fight began, he was 
assigned to General Thomas as chief commissary, and acted as 
Buch during the engagement. During his long service he has 
had many remarkable exj)eriences and some narrow escapes. 
At the battle of Stone Eiver he saved a large wagon-train by 
his presence of mind. He also rode back to Lavergne to find 
the trains and get flour for the men, and discovered a small drove 
of cattle and a large amount of corn belonging to the rebels, 
which was immediately distributed among the soldiers. In this 
and other ways he rendered efficient and invaluable service. 

January 28, 1863, Colonel Paul was promoted to his present 
rank. He is one of the most competent and faithful commis- 
saries in the army. He has a family whom he has not seen since 



MAJOR OSCAR A. MACK. 71 

entering the service, having been constantly at his post without 
asking for a furlough. 

Major Oscar A. Mack, Senior Aide-de-Camp, entered the 
United States Military Academy at West Point as a cadet from 
New Hampshire in 1846. He graduated eighth in his class in 
1850, was attached as brevet second lieutenant to the 3d Regi- 
ment of Artillery, and in 1851 was promoted as full second lieu- 
tenant in the 4th Eegiment of Artillery. In this regiment he 
served on the Northern lakes, the Atlantic seaboard, in Florida 
during the last campaign against " Billy Bowlegs," and on the 
Western frontier. 

On the breaking out of the rebellion he was a first lieutenant, 
commanding a company of his regiment at Fort Eandall, Ne- 
braska Territory. In April, 1861, he was ordered into the 
States, and reached Cincinnati with his company in May. In 
June he accompanied Major-General McClellan to Western Vir- 
ginia, and commanded his body-guard until after the battle of 
Eich Mountain. About that time he accepted the appointment 
of senior captain in the 13th Regular Infantry. 

Captain Mack was then given a mountain-howitzer battery, 
manned by his old artillery company, and remained in Western 
Virginia under General Eosecrans, accompanied him through his 
campaign on the Gauley, and was present at the battle of Carni- 
fex Ferry and the affairs on New Eiver. 

In December, 1861, Captain Mack was ordered to Kentucky 
to report to General Buell. On arriving in Louisville he was 
placed in command of the artillery camp of instruction for 
volunteer batteries. While there, he fitted out his own battery 
with light field-guns and a section of ten-pounder Parrotts. 
About the middle of January, 1862, he left Louisville with his 
new battery and joined General George H. Thomas at Somerset, 
Kentucky, but too late to be in the fight at Mill Springs. He 
remained with General Thomas's division, accompanying it to 
Nashville and Pittsburg Landing, until May, when he relin- 
quished the command of his battery and accepted the position of 



72 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

inspector of artillery on the staff of General Thomas, then assigned 
to the command of the right wing of the Army of the Mississippi. 
He served in this capacity with General Thomas through the 
operations about Corinth, in IS'orthern Alabama, Tennessee, and 
Kentucky. After the battle of Perryville, he was obliged to go 
home ou sick leave. He rejoined General Thomas at Nashville, 
and at the battle of Stone Eiver, December 31, 1862, was severely 
wounded. From the effects of this wound he has not yet suffi- 
ciently recovered to take the field. 

On the 11th of March, 1863, he was confirmed by the Senate 
as aide-de-camp, with the rank of major. 

Captain John D. Barker, Aide-de-Camp, and commander of 
the escort, was born in Marietta, Ohio, February 16, 1832. He 
was raised a farmer-boy, but at the time the rebellion began 
was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He entered the service, 
8ei)tember 16, 1861, as lieutenant of a company partly enlisted 
by himself, and belonging to the 1st Ohio Cavalry. For a time 
he was actively engaged in scouting in Kentucky, and was after- 
wards at the battle of Shiloh and the siege of Corinth on ordinary 
cavalry duty. In March, 1862, he was assigned to General Thomas 
as aide-de-camp and commander of his escort, and has thus re- 
mained with him to this time. He participated in the battles 
of Perryville and Stone Eiver, and -soon after the latter was pro- 
moted to a captaincy. Captain Barker is especially commended 
by his associates as a faithful officer and a brave soldier. 





J B LIPPINCOTT & COPHILADA 



f 



Pajor-ieneral J^^xantler Pciourell Prdjooh. 

Alexander McDowell McCook, Major-General of "Volunteers, 
and Captain of the 3d Eegiment U.S. Infantry, commanding the 
20th Army Corps, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, April 
22, 1831. At the age of sixteen he entered the Military Academy 
at "West Point, and graduated in July, 1852. Upon graduating, 
he was commissioned brevet second lieutenant in the 3d Regu- 
lar Infantry, and detailed to duty at Newport Barracks. Re- 
maining there a few months, he was ordered, in April, 1853, to 
join his regiment, then serving in New Mexico. He continued 
there nearly five years, constantly on active duty in the field, and 
participating in several of the Indian campaigns on that remote 
frontier. His long service and good conduct were mentioned 
and complimented in general orders by Lieutenant-General 
Scott. In January, 1858, he was recalled from New Mexico, 
and assigned to the Military' Academy at "West Point as In- 
structor in Tactics and the Art of "War. 

At the beginning of the present rebellion he was relieved from 

duty at "West Point, and in April, 1861, ordered to Columbus, 

Ohio, to act as mustering officer for the volunteers of that State. 

Before his arrival, however, he was elected colonel of the Ist Ohio 

A^'olunteers, a three-months regiment, already on its way to the 

seat of war in Virginia. Hastening to assume the position to 

which he had been elected without his knowledge or solicitation, 

he soon had an opportunity of exhibiting his ability as a field 

commander. On the 17th of June a train of cars containing a 

detachment of Ohio troops under command of Brigadier-General 

Schenck, of which Colonel McCook and his regiment formed a 

paii, and which was on a reconnoitring expedition, "was fired upon 

by a masked rebel battery near Yienna, Yirginia. The fire 

73 



74 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

proved very destructive, and threw the troops into confusion, 
from which they were rallied by the skill and coolness of Colonel 
McCook, and succeeded in retiring from the j)lace without fui'ther 
casualty. In the battle of Bull Eun Colonel McCook was en- 
gaged, and won universal commendation for the admirable 
manner in which he managed his men. At the close of this 
memorable conflict he marched his regiment back to Centreville 
in the same good order in which it had left that place, an 
honorable exception to the wide-spread confusion that prevailed 
elsewhere among the Union forces. 

"When the three-months men were mustered out of the service, 
he received authority from the President to raise the 1st Ohio 
Volunteers, a three-years regiment; but on the 3d of September, 
1861, and before his command was ready to take the field, he 
was appointed a brigadier-general, and assigned to the command 
of the advance of the Federal forces in Kentucky, then at Camp 
Nevin. There, and while lying in camp on Green Eiver, he 
organized his notable 2d Division, with which he afterwards 
marched to ISTashville, and thence towards the Tennessee Eiver. 
On the 6th of April, 1862, alarmed by the sullen sound of distant 
artillery, and aware of the dangerous situation of General Grant's 
army, he moved his division over wretched roads twenty-two 
miles to Savannah, there embarked on steamboats for Pittsburg 
Landing, and, after clearing with the bayonet a road through 
the army of stragglers that swarmed upon the river's bank, soon 
after daylight on the morning of the 7th deployed his brave 
and eager men upon the field of Shiloh. General McCook fought 
his troops on that day with consummate ability, holding them 
well in hand. His line of battle was not once broken nor retired, 
but was steadily and determinedly advanced until the enemy 
fled, and the reverse of the day before was more than redeemed 
by the victory which crowned the second day's struggle. 

In the movements upon Corinth which followed the battle of 
Shiloh, General McCook commanded the advance of General 
Buell's corps, and his skirmishers were among the first to scale 
the enemy's works. After the evacuation of Corinth, his com- 



MAJOR-GENERAL A. MCDOWELL MCCOOK. 75 

mand was moved through Northern Alabama to HuntsviLe, 
thence to Battle Creek, Tennessee, where it remained for nearly 
two months, confronting Bragg's forces at Chattanooga. On the 
17th of July, 18G2, ho w^as aj)pointed major-general, in view of 
his gallant conduct and distinguished services in the battle of 
Shiloh and the siege of Corinth. Upon the withdrawal of Gene- 
ral Buell's army from Alabama and Tennessee, General McCook 
moved his division, by a march of four hundred miles, back 
to Louisville. Here the Army of the Ohio, newly equipped and 
largely reinforced, was divided into three corps, and he was 
assigned to the command of the first. On the Ist of October he 
started from Louisville upon a new campaign in pursuit of Bragg. 
On the 8th the enemy was met and engaged near Perry ville ; 
but, owing to accidental causes, two divisions of General McCook's 
corps — one of them Jackson's, composed entirely of raw recruits 
— were forced to bear unsustained the assault of nearly the 
entire rebel army. The unexpected withdrawal of General Gil- 
bert's corps from the right, the early death of those two gallant 
generals, Jackson and Terrill, and the tardiness with which re- 
inforcements arrived, made the contest a desperate one, and 
when night settled upon the combatants it was yet undecided. 
During the night, how^ever, the enemy retreated, leaving the 
Union forces masters of the field and winners of an honorable 
but incomplete and dearly-bought victory. 

The object of this sudden onslaught by Bragg upon McCook's 
corps has never been fully determined ; but the most plausible 
presumption is, that, supposing* he could completely crush it 
before the arrival of reinforcements, he hoped thus so to weaken 
Buell as to prevent further pursuit and enable him safely to 
make his way from Kentucky into Tennessee. The desperate 
resistance of General McCook's gallant twelve thousand troops 
against overwhelming odds, losing in the fight one-fourth of 
their number in killed and wounded, bitt inflicting far deadlier 
injury upon the enemy, frustrated the designs of the rebel lead- 
ers. Bragg, however, succeeded so far as to escape from Ken- 
tucky without again coming in contact with the Federal forces; 



76 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

and the march of the latter was now turned towards Nashville. 
On the 30th of October General Rosecrans assumed command 
of the Department of the Cumberland, and on the 6th of Novem- 
ber General McCook was placed at the head of the forces in the 
vicinity of Nashville; and upon the organization of the Army of 
the Cumberland he was assigned to the leadership of the right 
wing. 

On the 26th of December the army moved from Nashville to 
attack the enemy in position in front of Murfreesborough, General 
McCook commanding the right. His line of march was by the 
Nolensville j)ike to Triune, where he ai-rived on Saturday, having 
had a brisk skirmish at Nolensville the day previous, result;- 
ing in his capturing one gun, and gaining possession of the town 
and the hills in front, with a loss of about seventy-five in killed and 
wounded. On Sunday the troops rested, and on Monday, the 
29th, he was ordered to move from Triune to Wilkerson's Cross- 
Eoads, six miles from Murfreesborough, leaving a brigade at 
Triune. By evening he reached Wilkerson's Cross-Eoads, with an 
advance brigade at Oversall's Creek, and the next day moved 
steadily forward, meeting with obstinate resistance fi'om Over- 
sail's Creek, and about four o'clock in the afternoon he got position 
on the Wilkerson pike, joining General Thomas, having lost in the 
day's contest about one hundred and thirty-five in killed and 
wounded. It was now the evening of December 30, and the two 
armies were in line of battle, confronting each other. 

General Eosecrans had massed his reserve on the left, to crush 
the rebel right with heavy columns and turn their jDOsition. 
But Bragg, learning of this disi)Osition during the night, massed 
the larger portion of his force in fi-ont and on the flank of 
McCook, and in the gray of the following morning, before any 
attack had been made upon the left, advanced in heavy force 
and with great fury upon the right wing. Outnumbered and 
outflanked, the right was forced to give way, but not until 
its line of battle had been marked with the evidences of a 
fiercely-contested struggle and of a fearful havoc in the enemy's 
ranks. To check the advance of the already victory-flushed 



MAJOR-GENERAL A. MCDOWELL MCCOOK. 77 

rebels, the Federal reserve were rapidly moved forward, and by 
their aid the enemy was held at bay and the right wing and the 
fortunes of the day were saved. Defeated on the left and in the 
centre, checked on the right, foiled in every attack, and again 
defeated on the 2d and 3d of January, the rebels, having lost 
nearly one-third of their army, abandoned the field on the night 
of the 3d, and on the 4th the victorious army of the Union 
passed through their deserted intrenchments and entered the 
town of Murfreesborough. 

General McCook comes from a remarkable family of " fighting- 
stock," — several brothers of whom have fought, and some 
fallen, in defence of their country. As possessors of stalwart 
and vigorous frames and constitutions, they are notable. The 
subject of this sketch is the hero of several contests. At Chap- 
lin Hills he displayed great coolness and daring; and during the 
adversities of the memorable Slst at Stone Eiver he rode to and 
fro through the fiery storm, narrowly escaping death at every 
hand, losing his horse, struck dead under him, and his own 
death being for several hours currently reported upon the battle- 
field. 

A brief allusion to the causes of the first day's discomfiture 
at Stone Eiver will not in this connection be deemed improper. 
The smoke of the battle-field has cleared away, and time and 
reflection and better knowledge are aids to a clearer under- 
standing of recent momentous events. General McCook's divi- 
sion, composing the right wing of the Army of the Cumberland, 
led the advance from Nashville to Murfreesborough For three 
days preceding, this division had followed up the rebel forces, 
constantly skirmishing with and forcing back their heavy rear- 
guard of cavalry and artillery. Arrived at the final battle- 
ground, the lines of our right wing were formed to face the lines 
of the enemy's left. If our right wing was too far extended, so 
was theirs. The surface of the country, though not hilly, was very 
rough, rocky, and broken with clumps of low, scrubby cedars, — 
very unfavorable ground upon which to manoeuvre troops and re- 
form broken lines. But the ground was ours from necessity, not 



78 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

choice. "When General McCook was questioned by the com- 
mander-in-chief as to his ability to maintain that three miles of 
battle-line, he replied that he was confident he could do it; and 
his grounds for that confidence seem ample. His troops were 
flushed with the successes recently obtained, they had been 
under fire in Kentucky, and there was mutual confidence and 
the best of feeling between officers and men, — which continues 
to this day. 

The massing of the rebels upon the extreme right of that 
wing early in the morning, and their impetuous dash, their 
rushing upon one or two batteries at the outset and seizing 
them, some of the horses, it is said, being away to be watered (a 
very natural and necessary circumstance), and the ground being 
so rough and clumpj'^ that large bodies of troops could not be 
successfully halted and re-formed or reserves be brought up at 
the right time and place, — were among the causes of the misfor- 
tunes of that day. History is pregnant with kindred instances, 
where many minor and even trifling occurrences have con- 
tributed to momentous results. Be the circumstances of this 
mishap as they may, the author but repeats the familiar mili- 
tary opinion and criticism of months past, in asserting that 
they were such as no ordinary military foresight could have 
foreseen, and no individual human skill and bravery have more 
speedily resisted. 

After the occupation of Murfreesborough, the Army of the Cum- 
berland was divided into three army corps, — the 14th, 20th, and 
21st; and Major-General McCook, who fully retains the confidence 
and esteem of the commander-in-chief and of his soldiers, was 
assigned to the command of the 20th Army Corps, the position he 
now holds. On the 29th day of January, 186.3, he was married 
to Miss Kate Philips, of Dayton, Ohio, a lady whose beauty and 
gentleness are appreciated in the Army of the Cumberland, where 
she has since been a welcome visitant. In this instance the 
saying is indeed trite, that " none but the brave deserve the 
fair." 



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Pajor-^encral %ovdl 1. lousseait and $hf^. 

LovELL H. EoussEAU, Major-Greneral of Volunteers, command- 
ing Ist Division, 14th Army Corps, was born in Lincoln county, 
Kentucky, August 4, 1818, and is of Huguenot stock, derived 
through purely Southern channels. His father was descended 
from one of three brothers who settled in South Carolina shortly 
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This Huguenot line 
subsequently allied itself with some of the most noted families 
of the Old Dominion, the mother of the sxibject of this sketch 
being a Gaines, thus connecting him with the Gaineses and Pen- 
dletons of Virginia. 

Acquii-ing the rudiments of an English education at a com- 
mon country school, young Eousseau prosecuted his studies, 
unassisted, at home, mainly by night; and thus he mastered 
the French language, the elements of mathematics, &c. The 
death of his father, and the call upon him to aid in supporting a 
large and helpless family, now in straitened circumstances, 
interrupted his studies at this point. Later in life, the study 
and practice of his profession afforded opportunities, never left 
unimproved, of largely increasing his general knowledge. On 
reaching the age of manhood, he began the study of law, in the 
face of almost insuperable difficulties, without an instructor. 
First relinquishing to his sisters his interest in a family of ne- 
groes, to prevent their being sold apart, he located himself in 
the country near Louisville. He studied unremittingly until 
August, 1840, when his laborious application produced its natural 
result, by prostrating him upon a bed of sickness, from which at 
times his recovery was despaired of. Late in the autumn, how- 
ever, he began to mend slowly. 

In a few weeks the buoyancy of youth and the vigor of his 

79 



80 ■ ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

constitution asserted their power and restored to him his memory 
and energy unabated. A location where he could make the future 
study of his profession self-sustaining by means of practice was 
with him now a necessity. After due inquiry and deliberation, 
he chose Bloomfield, Greene county, Indiana, and in the winter of 
1840 went to his new home, performing a great portion of the 
journey on foot with a bundle of clothing at his back. Here, 
after a hasty review of his previous acquirements, he applied for 
a license as an attorney, and was admitted to the bar. A 
remunerative practice soon followed, and he steadily rose in 
public appreciation. 

In the summer of 1843 he was called upon to become a can- 
didate for the Legislature. The Whig party of Greene county, 
invariably beaten from year to year, had at length become dis- 
heartened and disorganized. The Democratic majority varied 
from two to four hundred, according to the candidate. Eous- 
seau's first canvass against this heavy odds was perhaps never 
exceeded in vigor and excitement by any ordinary county con- 
test. His competitor — a man of wealth and position, and for 
twenty-seven years a resident of the county — had been unani- 
mously nominated by the convention of his party. Eousseau — a 
new-comer, poor, and a Whig — was elected by a majority of forty- 
three votes, his own township going so strongly for him as to 
decide the contest. The next summer he was re-elected by a 
majority of one hundred and forty-three, over a competitor of 
wealth and ability. 

When the Mexican War broke out, Eousseau raised a company 
of volunteers and became its captain. He was in the battle of 
Buena Yista ; and his conduct upon that occasion received marked 
commendation in the official reports of Colonel Humphrey 
Marshall and other superior officers. 

In the summer of 1847, while still absent in Mexico, he was 
brought forward by his friends as a candidate for the Indiana 
Senate, in the district composed of Greene and Owen counties. 
His opponent was John F. O'Neal, a well-known and popular 
gentleman, who, in a long experience of political life and party 



MAJOR-GENERAL L. H. ROUSSEAU. 81 

contests, had never been beaten. Hon. George G. Dunn was 
a candidate for Congress the same year, Owen and Greene 
counties being a j)art of his district. The Congressional race 
was close ; but the success of the Whig ticket in Owen county, 
where Dunn had a majority of fifty -nine, secured his election by 
a majority of one vote in the entire district. Rousseau's ma- 
jority in Owen county was two hundred and twenty -nine, and in 
Greene and Owen combined four hundred and fifteen. 

In 1849, desiring a larger field for the practice of his profession, 
he determined to return to Louisville. Being still a member of 
the Indiana Senate, he desired to resign his seat in that body; 
but, his constituents expressing their wish with much unanimity 
and fervor that he should continue to represent them until the 
expiration of the term for which he had been chosen, he con- 
sented, and attended the legislative sessions at Indianapolis for 
two years after he had removed to Louisville. 

The Louisville bar at this time was rich in talent and learning^.. 
James Guthrie, Preston S. Loughborough, Chas. M. Thurston^ 
Garnett Duncan, W. P. Thomasson, Wm. S. Pilcher, the firm of 
Page & Fry, James Speed, W. S. Bodley, Hamilton Pope, Henry 
C. Pindell, W. T. Heaggin, and the firm of the Ballards, one of 
whom is now a member of the Federal judiciary, were among 
its most conspicuous and honored members. Hon. S. S. Nicholas 
was Chancellor, Hon. W. F. Bullock judge of the Circuit Coui't,. 
and Hon. Nat Wolfe attorney for the commonwealth. Hon. 
Henry Pirtle — a revered and venerable name — was still a prac- 
titioner at the bar, not then having ascended the woolsack, which 
he has now adorned for so many years. Hon. Peter B. Muir, 
since known as one of the ablest jurists of the West, removed 
to Louisville about the same time; and Hon. Eobert F. Baird was 
that summer a candidate to represent the city of Louisville in 
the State Legislature, where he was subsequently known as 
" the lone-star emancipationist." As a practitioner, Rousseau's 
position at the Louisville bar was commanding from the begin- 
ning. In jury-trials his success was uniform, he very rarely 
losing a verdict. He was ever the champion of the poor and 



82 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

lowly, and defended their rights as vigorously as though they 
had been able to pay him. One striking feature in his experience 
as a lawyer and throughout life has been his hold upon the good 
will and the affections of the humbler classes. Among the most 
interesting and important cases in which he was engaged may 
be mentioned the trial of Cope for abduction, the Brier Creek 
ipurder case, the trial of Preston for killing Eeichardt, and the 
irial of the Aliens and Hickses, charged with murdering Paschal 
D. Craddock, the history of any one of which would fill a 
volume. 

In the spring of 1860, while absent from home, he was elected 
to the Kentucky Senate without op2:)Osition, both political parties 
voting for him. At the regular and called sessions of the autumn, 
/Winter, and following spring he took a prompt and decided 
stand for the Government. He advocated a coercive policy at 
the very beginning of the rebellion. When Sumter was bom- 
barded, he wished for "power to sweep out of existence the 
miscreants who had done that treason," and declared that "a 
Government worth living under is worth fighting for." These 
bold utterances were made against earnest remonstrances, and 
at a time when the stoutest hearts in Kentucky were dumb with 
fear. He understood the character and extent of the rebellion 
too well to be influenced by timid counsel, and, in his place in 
the Senate and before the people, continued to advocate prompt 
.and vigorous measures. He oj)posed the policy of neutrality 
which a majority of the Legislatui'e adopted; and, unable to in- 
fluence his colleagues to take proper action, he resigned his seat 
in the Senate, and began raising troops for the service of the 
•Government, — a during step at that time. Applying to the 
War Department for authority to enlist men in Kentucky, 
he was commissioned colonel of volunteers in June, 1861, and at 
once entered upon his difficult and dangerous work. He was 
somewhat ob.structed in this at the beginning by a resolution 
which was adopted by the leading politicians of the State at a 
secret meeting, protesting against the establishment of any 
United States recruiting rendezvous within the limits of Ken- 



MAJOR-GENERAL L. H. ROUSSEAU. 83 

tucky. Undaunted by these new difficulties, he established 
" Camp Joe Holt," an ever-memorable spot on the northern bank 
of the Ohio River across from Louisville and adjacent to the 
Falls. Many of his oldest Kentucky friends now stood aloof from 
him. Few cared to be seen in conversation with him, and none to 
share the odium of his course. He encountered only cold words 
and averted faces. For loyalty's sake he was become a stranger 
in his own home. But there came a day when all this was 
changed. The poorer classes of Louisville and of the neighboring 
counties approved his action and filled his z-anks. By the 1st 
of Sejjtember he had recruited two full regiments of infantry 
and a battery of artillery. He then received orders to report to 
General Fremont at St. Loiiis, and was ready to go; but, through 
the interposition of the leading citizens of Louisville, fully 
awakened to the danger of a rebel invasion, these oi'ders were 
countermanded just as his troops were on the point of de- 
parture. The threatened rebel invasion followed a few days 
afterwards, and Colonel Rousseau, crossing the Ohio with the 
utmost celerity and secrecy on the night of September 17, 
gained Muldraugh's Hill by rapid marches, thus protecting 
Louisville from invasion. 

On the 1st of October Colonel Rousseau was promoted to a 
brigadier-generalship, and assigned to the command of the 4th 
Brigade of the Army of the West, the first of General McCook's 
division. This magnificent brigade consisted of three battalions 
of regulars, — one each from the 15th, 16th, and 19th Infantry, — 
the Louisville Legion, the 1st Ohio and 6th Indiana Yoluntecrs, 
and Terrill's Battery H, 5th Regular Artillery. The division 
lay in camp, confronting Buckner, and perfecting its drill and 
discipline, until February 18, 1862, when it began the march that 
led to Shiloh and Corinth. At Columbia, Tennessee, General 
Rousseau was attacked by severe sickness; but, determined to 
participate in the great events apparently at hand, he rode 
for several days in an ambulance at the head of his command. 
On the morning of April 6, while the brigade was still on 
the march, twenty miles in rear of Savannah, the booming of 



84 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

cannon announced that the battle of Shiloh had begun. Mount- 
ing his horse and urging forward his men, he reached Savannah 
with his command in time to be transported to Pittsburg Land- 
ing by dayliglit the next morning. His brigade was under the 
immediate supervision of his department and division com- 
manders, and fought with a bravery and determination that 
attracted the notice of even the generals of the sister army. It 
drove the enemy steadily before it, and at the close of the action 
had gained about two miles of ground in the front. General 
McCook, in his official report, spoke of General Eousseau as 
having " won the admiration of the army" by his bearing that 
day; General Sherman mentioned him as having driven the 
enemy steadily before him ; General McClemand's language was 
not less commendatory J and General Buell called the attention 
of the War Department to his services. 

The 4th Brigade and its leader took an important part in the 
operations before Corinth, and when General Buell's army was 
sent into ISTorthern Alabama, General Eousseau was placed in 
command of the 3d Division, then stationed at Huntsville. Here 
his administration of affairs was firm and justj and perhaps no 
other portion of his life has been more successful than this. 

General Buell's march to Kentucky in his campaign against 
Bragg now ensued. At Munfordsville, where a battle was 
expected, General Eousseau commanded the right wing. Buell's 
army, having been supplied and reinforced at Louisville, marched 
ffom that city on the 1st of October, in three columns. The 
left wing, consisting of the divisions of Eousseau, Sill, and 
Jackson, and commanded by Major-General McCook, marched 
(except Sill's division) by way of Taylorsville and Bloomfield, 
and reached Mackville on the night of October 7. Bragg, having 
concentrated the bulk of his own army, was probably moving to 
form a junction with Kirby Smith at Harrodsburg, preparatory 
to giving Buell battle. But, pressed too closely for his own 
safety, or tempted by the chances which the topography of the 
country seemed to afford him, or perhaps influenced by both of 
these considerations, he halted, and made the hills of Chaplin 



MAJOR-GENERAL L. H. ROUSSEAU. 85 

historic. The Periyville and Harrodsburg road, which was his 
line of march, formed a small angle with the Perryville and 
Mackville road, over which our left wing was moving. Waiting, 
therefore, with his forces well in hand until our left came within 
Bti"iking-distance, he fell upon it with an impetuosity and fury 
never exceeded in the annals of warfare. Jackson's division, 
composed entirely of i*aw tz-oops, was overwhelmed and quickly 
routed, with heavy loss, including that of its gallant commander 
and two of its brigade commanders, Brigadier-General Terrill and 
Acting Brigadier-General Webster. The whole weight of the 
rebel army now fell upon Rousseau's division with redoubled 
fury. Selecting a new position, and encouraging his men by a 
fearless exposure of himself, he stemmed the torrent and re- 
pulsed the enemy. The battle was terrific, thei-e being scarcely 
an instant's pause from the beginning to the end. From half- 
past twelve at mid-day until dark, the battle-field was one 
unbroken scene of flame and death. General Bragg, who was 
at Buena Vista and Shiloh, calls it " the severest and most des- 
perately contested engagement within his knowledge." General 
Eousseau lost one-third of his entire division, — which consisted 
of three brigades of volunteers, commanded by Colonels Lytle, 
Harris, and Starkweather, and four batteries of artillery. Op- 
posed to them were three divisions of Bragg's favorite corps, the 
rebel Army of the Mississippi. The enemy withdrew in great 
confusion during the night, too badly shattered to give General 
Buell further battle. 

Immediately after the battle General Buell telegraphed to 
the War Department, recommending the promotion of General 
Rousseau to a major-generalship " for distinguished gallantry 
and good service in the battle of Perryville." The promotion was 
at once made, to date from the day of the battle, the commission 
accounting for itself in the precise language of General Buell's 
despatch. Bragg having hastily evacuated Kentucky, Buell 
directed his march towards Nashville, and at Bowling Green was 
superseded in command by General Eosecrans. A reorgan- 
ization of the army now took place, and General Rousseau's 



86 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

division was assigned to the centre corps, commanded by Major- 
General Thomas. After some time spent in necessary prepara- 
tions, General Eosecrans advanced fi-om Nashville on the 26th 
of December. 

On the morning of December 31, the battle of Murfreesborough, 
or Stone Eiver, opened. Colonel Starkweather's brigade having 
been temporarily detached, and not arriving on the field until 
evening, General Eousseau's division, composed of one brigade 
of regulars under command of Colonel Sheppard, two brigades 
of volunteers under command of Colonels Scribner and Beatty, 
and two batteries of artillery, was massed in reserve in a cotton- 
field to the right of the Murfreesborough and Nashville turnpike. 
The right of the division rested on a dense cedar forest. Half 
an hour after this disposition had been made, General Thomas 
ordered the division to move to the support of the right wing, 
which was drifting around to the rear of the centre before the 
overwhelming masses of the enemy. Extreme difficulty was 
experienced in getting the troops and batteries through the 
cedars ; but at length the heads of the brigades, marching by the 
flank, reached the opposite edge of the forest by two separate 
roads. It being impossible to make the least use of the bat- 
tei'ies, they were sent to the rear again. The infantry were 
formed and posted as advantageously as the circumstances would 
allow, and the right was immediately engaged with the enemy. 
The division of the right wing retired through the line and 
around its flanks, closely pressed by the enemy. In this manner 
the right of the division was quickly turned, and its left seriously 
threatened. To prevent its being taken at such disadvantage, 
the division was retired to the open ground which it had 
lately left, the batteries were massed on a commanding knoll, 
and the infantry posted in skilfully-selected positions. The 
enemy, following with reckless energy, made a bold dash for the 
new position. A terrible fire of grape and musketry swept the 
left and centre of their line, and covered the ground with their 
dead and wounded. Towards the right of the division, the rebel 
line, encountering resistance and natural obstructions, did not 



MAJOR-GENERAL L. H. ROUSSEAU. 8^ 

reach the open ground until the repulse and rout of the reoels 
on our left. General Rousseau at once ordered his right, con- 
sisting of the regulars, to charge, and the enemy were driven 
precipitately in that quarter also, though not without heavy loss 
to us. The enemy subsequently made several determined but 
unsuccessful attempts against the position with artillery, and 
in this way succeeded in killing many of our men. They also 
made formidable demonstrations by a heavy massing of infantry, 
but could not induce their men to make another assault. On 
Saturday evening a portion of Colonel Beatty's brigade drove 
the rebels from a wood and a line of temporary works in the 
front, thus closing the battle. The distinguished service ren- 
dered by General Eousseau in this engagement was freely 
acknowledged by the commanding general, who in his oflicial 
report returned his thanks to " the gallant and ever-ready 
Major-General Eousseau." 

Athletic and of commanding appearance, few men possess a 
nobler j^resence than General Eousseau. Knowing no distinction 
of classes, and receiving with equal favor the humblest and the 
proudest, he is noted for the amenity and kindness of his manner 
As a legislator, his views have been liberal and statesmanlike 
As a commander, he is honored by his compeers and esteemed 
.by his men. In the walks of private life his friends witness the 
more attractive traits of his character exemplified, — traits to 
which the sternness and tumult of war give little room for 
display. His early and determined opj)Osition to the rebellion 
as a Kentuckian is alone sufficient to make his an honored name. 
His devotion to the principles he then professed has been demon- 
strated by nearly two years of active and efficient service. 

In 1843, General Eousseau was married to Miss Antoinette 
Dozier, daughter of James J. Dozier, the law partner of Felix 
Grundy, of Tennessee. His family consists of his wife and four 
children; and their present residence is in the city of Louisville. 



88 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



THE sTArr. 



Major William Preston McDowell, Assistant Adjutant- Gene- 
ral, is, like his general and hundreds of other brave men in this 
army, a Southerner by birth and education. He was born in 
Louisville, Kentucky, in the year 1837; and at the outbreak of 
the rebellion we find him engaged in the study of the law in one 
of the Clerks' offices in his native city. 

No sooner had the President called upon Kentucky for her 
quota of troops than he enlisted in the 15th Eegiment Kentucky 
Volunteer Infantry. On the 15th of September, 1861, he was 
commissioned adjutant of the same regiment. 

He served with his regiment until August 3, 1862, when he 
was detailed on the staff of GJ-eneral Eousseau, then commanding 
the 3d Division of the Army of the Ohio, and at the battle of 
Chaplin Hills, Kentucky, served as aide, and received much 
praise for his gallant behavior. After this battle he was ap- 
pointed acting assistant adjutant-general on the staff, and served 
in this capacity until after the battle of Stone Eiver. In the 
first day's engagement he was wounded severely in the left arm ; 
but, although the wound was painful, he refused to leave the 
field until loss of blood compelled him to retire. 

On the 15th of March, 1863, he was commissioned by the 
President as assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of major. 
One of our youngest and bravest officers, we bespeak for him 
a brilliant future. 

Colonel Marion C. Taylor, formerly acting assistant adju- 
tant-general, at present commands the 15th Piegiment Kentucky 
Volunteers. He was born in Ohio county, Kentucky, in the 
year 1822, and at the commencement of the rebellion was enjoy- 
ing a lucrative practice of the law at Shelbyville. He was 
among the first in that section of the State to respond to the 
call of the President, and in a short time recruited a full com- 
pany for the regiment which he now commands. From Sep- 
tember, 18C1, to December, l'^G2, he served as captain in his 



LIEUTENANT HARRISON MILLARD. 89 

regiment. He was then detailed upon the staff of Major-General 
Kousseau. When Major McDowell received his wound at the 
battle of Stone Eiver, Captain Taylor succeeded him as assistant 
adjutant-general. During this battle the colonel of his regiment 
was killed, and in February, 1863, the Governor of Kentucky 
commissioned Captain Taylor as colonel. The regiment which 
he now commands has already lost in battle two colonels and 
every field officer of its original organization. 

We have been unable to obtain sketches of — 

Colonel C. 0. Loomis, Chief of Artillery. 

Captain C. K. Smith, Quartermaster. 

Lieutenant Alfred Pirtle, Ordnance Officer. 

Lieutenant W. M. Carpenter, Aide-de-Camp. 

Lieutenant S. L. Hartman, Aide-de-Camp. 

Lieutenant Harrison Millard, Aide-de-Camp and Division 
Inspector, is familiar to many in the musical world; and the 
past two years have proved him as gallant in battle as he is 
popular in song. He was born and educated in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, and at an early age evinced a strong passion for art 
and song, his devotion to which impelled him to go abroad to 
complete his musical studies. There he remained for upwards 
of five years, spending most of the time in Italy and Paris. The 
breaking out of the rebellion found him pursuing his profession 
in New York City; but, notwithstanding a brilliant career 
was opening before him, he was one of the first to enlist for his 
country's defence. Two years before this, he had written and 
published the widely-known national song " Viva V America," which 
has found a place in thousands of homes and hamlets in this 
country and has warmed thousands of hearts. He was a private 
m the Light Guard, Company A, 71st New York V.M., and with 



90 AEMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

thirty-six hours' notice he was with his regiment on his way to 
"Washington when danger first menaced our capital. The in- 
cidents of that journey were depicted in his extensively-read 
" Only Nine Miles to the Junction." For three months he wass 
stationed at the navy yard in that city, cheerfully performing the 
drudgery and monotonous duty of a common soldier. 

A short time before the expiration of his three-months enlist- 
ment, he was offered and accepted a first lieutenancy in the 
Eegular Army; and he immediately rej)orted for duty at India- 
napolis, Indiana, the head-quarters of the 19th U.S. Infantry. 
Lieutenant Millard performed a few months' duty with his regi- 
ment, when he was called to the staff of General Eousseau, 
then commanding the brigade; and he has ever since remained 
with the general. He was with him at the battles of Shiloh, 
Chaplin Hills (Perry ville), Kentucky, and Murfreesborough, 
Tennessee. During the five days' battle at Stone Eiver he was 
constantly near the general, having his horse killed under him 
and his overcoat perforated with bullets. We cannot close this 
brief sketch better than by appending the following extract 
from a letter of " W. D. B." to the Cincinnati Commercial, as 
indicative of the character and traits of Lieutenant Millard : — 

" I desire to call the attention of wives and mothers to an exquisite little 
song that was composed by a soldier the night before the battle of Stone 
River. Lieutenant H. Millard, 19th U.S.A., and aide-de-camp to Major- 
General Rousseau, is the author. On the night of the 29th of December, when 
the division bivouacked on Stewart's Creek, Lieutenant Millard's wife bade 
him good-bye. We expected to go into battle next morning. Lieutenant 
Millard reclined on a shock of corn, looking into the blue skies, thinking of 
his wife, — for soldiers think of wives and little ones at such periods. His 
comrades were speculating on the chances of battle, now and then expressing 
amiable envy that Millard could sleep so soundly. Suddenly he sprang 
from his couch, and, calling Lieutenant Pirtle, he repeated the result of his 
fancies to him, in verse, which he entitled 'Whisper Good-Night, Love,' 
Tuesday night (30th of December), while the division was bivouacked in front 
of Murfreesborough, he composed and arranged the music for the piano. 
The next day five hundred and eight of Millard's comrades were bleeding on 
the field of battle. I don't know what our music-loving lady friends may 
think of our soldier's song ; but indeed it touches soldiers' hearts." 



^j„©E^.^t©4^ 



¥ 



..-^^ 



p-^-6-"^ JQ^. 







Pajor-€cneral James ^. gejgleg and ^taff; 

James S. Negley, Major-General of Volunteers, commanding 
2d Division, 14th Army Corps, was born December 26, 1826, in 
East Liberty, Alleghany county, "Pennsylvania. His family is 
of Swiss descent; and its members are very numerous and 
among the most respectable and influential in the county. His 
earlier days were spent in the quiet of home, and employed in 
obtaining a plain practical education in the English branches 
as taught in the common schools of Pennsylvania. After passing 
through the preparatory studies, he entered college, but had left 
it, and was preparing himself for mercantile pursuits, when the 
military ardor of his nature, then already attracting comment 
and attention, was fully aroused by the declaration of war with 
Mexico and President Polk's call for troops. Though not of 
age, young Negley enlisted in the Duquesne Grays, at that time 
one of the finest companies in the State, and thus became a pri- 
vate in the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry. His friends and rela- 
tives doubted his physical ability to endure the hardshijDS of the 
campaign, and endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose. 
Failing in this, they applied to the legal authorities to prevent 
his going. With a spirit of determination which later events have 
shown to be a prominent characteristic of the man, he informed 
the court that it was his purpose to go at all events. Under 
such circumstances it was thought useless to restrain him longer; 
and he was allowed to go with his company. During the cam- 
paign under General Scott, Negley participated in the siege of 
Puebla, the battle of Cerro Gordo, and other minor engage- 
ments. During this service his friends heard of his severe ill- 
ness, which nearly proved fatal, and, on application to the 

"War Department, procured his honorable discharge. This reached 

91 



92 ARMY OF TUE CUMBERLAND. 

him immediately after the siege of Puebla; but he refused to 
accept it ; and, though it could not be cancelled, he remained on 
duty — having been promoted to be a sergeant — until the close of 
the war, when he returned home with his company. 

Negley now Avent to Pittsburg, where he engaged in the manu- 
facture of agricultural and railroad machinery ; but, this proving 
unprofitable, he returned to East Liberty and devoted himself 
to agriculture and horticulture; and in these pursuits he was 
distinguished for activity and scientific ability. While thus 
engaged, he was married to Miss Kate Lozey, a niece of the late 
Commodore Van Voorhies. 

Although thus retired to private life, Negley felt an active 
interest in military aifairs. A company was formed in his native 
village, of which he was elected commander, and, devoting thereto 
much time and attention, by his labors raised it to a state of the 
highest efficiency. Several of its old members hold distinguished 
positions in our army; and the company itself — the ISTegley 
Zouaves — is attached to the 77th Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- 
teer Infantry, at present in the Army of the Cumberland. 

The interest felt by Captain Negley in military matters was 
not confined to his own company. As early as 1858 he became 
generally known by his earnest efforts to induce the executive 
and legislative powers of his native State to reorganize the 
State militia, predicting at that early day that a time would 
soon come when Pennsylvania would regret that her militia was 
not upon a war-footing. Although Captain !N"egley's plans and 
arguments were much in advance of the hour, they were not 
wholly lost upon the people, and something of a military interest 
was created in his own county, which gradually extended 
over the State. In 1858 he was offered the colonelcy of a regi- 
ment raised in Alleghany county, but declined, as he subsequently 
did the proffered major-generalship of the 18th division of the 
State militia, accepting, however, the brigade-generalship of the 
troops raised as militia in his own county, believing tliut he 
could thus more effectually contribute to the State military ser- 
vice. He earl}^ foresaw that tlie pf»litieal struggles of 18G0 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 93 

would eventuate in civil war, and made earnest preparations to 
take the field at the head of a brigade, and as early as December 
1, 1860, offered the services of the brigade to the Governor of 
Pennsylvania. At last the war opened, as he had predicted. 
Governor Curtin, on the 18th of April, telegraphed General 
Negley that his sei-vices and those of his brigade were needed ; 
and the call was immediately responded to by the organization 
of the brigade, and its appearance in Harrisburg within ten days 
thereafter. 

The organization of all the volunteers in Western Pennsylvania 
was then placed under General Negley's control, and he soon 
forwarded several regiments to Washington. In addition to his 
brigade, he organized forty companies, all of which subsequently 
took the field. He was then ordered to Harrisburg, York, and 
Lancaster, where he was placed in charge of the 14th and 15th 
Pennsylvania Regiments, which he soon brought to an excellent 
state of discipline. He also, with the assistance of Captain (now 
Brigadier-General) Charles Campbell, organized the first battery 
of the famous regiment of Pennsylvania Artillery. During the 
three-months service. General Negley commanded a brigade in 
Maryland and Virginia. Previous to its close, however, he was 
authorized by the War Department to raise a brigade for the 
three-years service, which was done in an almost incredibly 
short period. On the 28th of September, 1861, he was ordered 
to march his brigade, consisting of the 77th, 78th, and 79th 
Pennsylvania Eegiments and Mueller's Pennsylvania Battery, 
to join General Rosecrans in Western Virginia. Before embark- 
ing at Pittsburg, however, the order was countermanded, and 
he was directed to report to General Sherman at Louisville, 
Kentucky. Upon arriving there, his brigade was attached to 
the division of General McCook, and remained with it during 
the weary waiting at Green River and the advance upon Bowl- 
ing Green. Subsequently detached from the division at the 
request of General Negley, it made the overland march to Kash- 
ville, and advanced with Buell's army towards Pittsburg Land- 



84 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

ing, as far as Columbia, Tennessee, where General Negley was 
left in command. 

General Negley assumed command at Columbia, April 1, 
1862, with a force of three thousand men, which was gradually 
increased, as the armies of Buell and Mitchel advanced, to 
about . ten thousand. In his new position he labored under 
many disadvantages. He had the entire rear of both armies to 
protect, their communications to keep open, their supplies to 
forward, and at the same time was expected to be ready at a 
moment's notice to march to the aid of either. To add to his 
labors, every thing was in disoi-der and confusion. The strag- 
glers, convalescents, and sick of Buell's whole army, amounting 
to some five thousand men, were left at Columbia, with no com- 
mander, no rations, no quarters, and, in fact, no one to do any 
thing for them. His first duty was to attend to these. He 
immediately cleared out and prepared for their use several of 
the largest buildings in the town, and by sending those able to 
do duty to their commands on the mai'ch to the Tennessee 
Eiver, and moving the convalescents back to Nashville, he 
reduced the number of hospital patients, in less than ten days, to 
not more than one hundred. In his new command it was his 
especial duty to guard the posts of Columbia, Shelbyville, Frank- 
lin, Tullahoma, Pulaski, Mount Pleasant, a»d other minor points, 
besides keeping open at all hazards the railroads to Huntsville 
and Decatur, Alabama. The countiy swarmed with guerrillas, 
who were constantly hovering about our lines, on the alert for 
every chance that might offer for a dash at an inferior force, 
or a surprise of some inadequately guarded supply-train. In 
watching the movements of these roving bodies, and in govern- 
ing and keeping in order the inhabitants of his district, the 
period of his command at Columbia was mostly occupied : yet 
he found time for two important expeditions, — one to Eogers- 
ville and Florence, and the other to Chattanooga, — besides 
various smaller skirmishes and ffuerrilla-hunts. 

On the 8th of May he Avas ordered by General Mitchel to 
concentrate at Pulaski, Tennessee, at least tAvo thousand men, 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 95 

infantry and cavalry, and three thousand, if possible, from his 
own command at Columbia and Colonel Duffield's at Murfrees- 
borough, for a movement upon the enemy's cavalry beyond Elk 
River and in the vicinity of Rogersville and Florence. On the 
10th he left Columbia, with about one thousand men, for Pulaski, 
ordering about the same number from Mount Pleasant to join 
him at the rendezvous. On the 13th, at three p.m., his force, con- 
sisting of four regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, 
and two sections of artillery, left Pulaski, and marched twelve 
miles, where they encamped for a few hours, and then made a 
forced march of twenty-one miles in six hours. The enemy's 
pickets were driven in, and gave the alarm to the forces in the 
town of Rogersville, who fled in every direction. A portion of 
the cavalry pushed on to Lamb's Ferry, on the Tennessee River, 
and fired upon a boat-load of the enemy as they were crossing 
the river, killing several men and horses. Once over the river, 
the rebels opened fire upon our men, but were soon dispersed 
by the Federal artillery, and fled hastily beyond the range 
of our guns. A ferry-boat on the north side of the Ten- 
nessee was destroyed, and General Kegley pushed on to Flo- 
rence and to Cheatham's Ferry, fifteen miles below, desti-oying 
all the water-craft as he proceeded. He also arrested all the 
manufacturers of cotton and woollen goods, and all the iron- 
founders near Florence who had been supplying the rebel ai*my 
with their products, and exacted of them heavy bonds and 
their parole of honor not to sell, directly or indirectly, any thing 
to the enemies of the Federal Government, — a policy then con- 
sidered of great importance, as immense quantities of goods had 
been sold there. He also levied taxes upon the prominent 
secessionists to remunerate Union men for the damages done 
them by the rebels, and on one occasion ordered his aide-de- 
camp to ride many miles out of the way to pay, from the funds 
thus raised, a widow who had been robbed by guerrillas. For 
his energy and rapidity of movement in this expedition he 
was highly complimented by Major-General Mitchel. 

Returning to Columbia on the 20th, matters remained quiet 



96 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

for a day or two, when General Negley advised General Mitchel 
that a large force of rebel cavalry was being concentrated at or 
near McMinnville, Tennessee, and urged upon Mitchel to allow 
him to strengthen Colonel Lester at McMinnville. About the 
same time he reported that Starns's rebel cavalry was said to be 
moving towards McMinnville. On the 25th of May, General 
Mitchel, again urged, gave General Negley the requested order, 
and Murfreesborough was strengthened by forces placed at 
Shelbyville, "Wartrace, and other points. General Mitchel, about 
the same time, getting important information on the subject, 
went from Huntsville to Nashville, where on the 26th of May 
he telegraphed to Negley to meet him. 

On the 27th of May, Negley was at Nashville, and had an 
interview with Mitchel and Lester. Mitchel asked of him an 
elaboration of the views he had telegraphed. General Negley 
stated to him briefly his information. The rebel forces threat- 
ening Murfreesborough had come from Chattanooga, taking 
advantage of the Sequatchie Valley. The true way to attack 
him, he argued, was to do so by the same valley, thus endanger- 
ing his rear. At the same time, he proposed to attack Starns's 
force in front and drive it into or across the river, or capture it. 
By thus threatening Chattanooga, the rebels would be compelled 
to withdraw from McMinnville, or from some other point, to 
reinforce Chattanooga. While this plan would be offensive 
against Starns, it would be strategical also ; and, besides, if made 
by the route named, the railroad brought supplies near at hand. 
To make Murfreesborough the base would require a force 
of greater magnitude than both generals could raise. A calcu- 
lation was made : five thousand men could be spared for the ex- 
pedition. General Mitchel decided that it should be made, and 
placed General Negley in command of it. " When can you put 
your troops in motion ?" asked Mitchel. " To-night," replied 
Negley. " Then I will go to bed," said Mitchel ; and the inter- 
view ended, Lester, however, being dissatisfied with the plan. 

At four o'clock the next morning the troops of General 
Negley were in motion at Columbia, on the way to Pulaski. 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 97 

By a special train the general reached Columbia the same day. 
From there he telegraphed to Governor Johnson and General 
Morgan, in front of Cumberland Gap, the purpose of the expe- 
dition. He said to Morgan that he should be in front of Chatta- 
nooga on the 6th of June, and that it was his belief that the 
movement would result in the evacuation of Cumberland Gap ; 
that the rebels laid moi-e stress on the position at McMinnville, 
and the result it promised, than they did on the gap. He pushed 
forward, assumed the command, and entered Pulaski on the 
29th. On the 31st he was at Fayetteville, where he received 
further intimations of danger at Murfreesborough, and was re- 
quired by Mitchel to look to that place and reinforce it. Mitchel 
in this despatch said that he was at a loss to understand Beaure- 
gard's movements,— the evacuation of Corinth taking place at 
that time. Negley's reply was to tne effect that if the expedi- 
tion were pushed forward and the road cut at Chattanooga, the 
evacuation of Corinth would be in vain, and that in his opinion 
Beauregard was passing East via Chattanooga. On the 3d of 
June, the march having been resumed, Negley entered Win- 
chester, dispersing a small force of the enemy and capturing 
several prisoners. On the 4th, General Morgan thanked General 
Negley for his advice, and desired to know what force was 
moving against Chattanooga. 

On the same day (June 4), having made a forced march of 
twenty miles over a rugged and almiost impassable mountain- 
road, he captured the enemy's pickets at Sweeden's Cove, com- 
pletely surprising General Adams's rebel cavalry encamped at 
the foot of the mountain. After a hand-to-hand fight in a 
narrow lane and upon broken ground, the enemy was routed, with 
a loss of twenty killed and twice as many wounded. Thus dis- 
persed, they fled in wild disorder, strewing the ground for miles 
with guns, swords, and pistols, and not once stopping until they 
reached Chattanooga, forty-three miles distant. Their ammu- 
nition and commissary wagons, filled with supplies, were also 
captured by our forces. On the 5th of June, General Negley 

(arrived at Jasper, beyond his new base of supplies, and ho 

r 



98 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

began to look to the safety of his flanks. He put Colonel Sill's 
brigade at Shell Mound to protect his right, and stationed a 
regiment at Battle Creek to protect the left and to hold the 
pontoon bridge over the creek. He then ordered Turchin's 
brigade by one road, and Colonel Hambright's by the Anderson 
road, to Chattanooga. On the 6th of June he was opposite that 
place. On the 7th the battle occurred, consisting principally of 
ft heavy cannonade lasting an hour and a half, during which the 
enemy was driven from his guns and three of them seriously 
damaged ; and on the evening of the 8th he began his retreat. 

Why did he withdraw ? Why did he not occupy and hold the 
place after he had silenced the enemy's fire and driven them 
from the city? Simply because he had not force enough to 
cross the river in the face of the enemy with safety, or to hold 
the place when once within it. The moment Adams was de- 
feated at Sweeden's Cove, Kirby Smith with five thousand men 
withdrew from Cumberland Gap, and on the 8th was actually in 
Chattanooga. This decided ISTegley to withdraw. It also de- 
cided Morgan to enter Cumberland Gap; and in that and in the 
dispersal of the guerrillas we have the legitimate results of the 
expedition, and all that Negley had expected of it. On the 7th 
Negley knew that Chattanooga was occupied by only a small 
force under John Morgan. He telegraphed to Mitchel and 
Buell, " I can take Chattanooga without loss. Will you give me 
enough men to hold it ?" Not receiving from them any assu- 
rance of the needed reinforcements, he telegraphed on the 8th, 
" It is almost impossible to construct sufficient pontoons to cross 
the river in force. I do not consider the capture of Chattanooga 
as very difficult or hazardous, if we were prepared to do it and 
then to hold the place. But, taking into consideration the exposed 
condition of both front and rear of our lines to Pittsburg Land- 
ing, the long line of communication over a hardly passable road, 
the liability of a rise in the streams we have to ford, — some of 
them being now three feet deep, with rough bottoms, — our limited 
supplies, and the fact that our expedition has accomplished all 
we expected to do, have determined me to retire, the forces 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 99 

taking different routes, so as to drive Starns to Knoxville. I 
shall make another demonstration against Chattanooga this 
morning, during which time the trains will be ascending the 
mountain, which is almost impassable for artillery and loaded 
wagons." During the evening of the 7th the enemy threatened 
to cross the river opposite Chattanooga and at Shell Mound; 
but the dispositions made by General Ncgley prevented them 
from carrying out their object. 

At nine o'clock on the morning of the 8th, Colonel Scribner's 
command took position before Chattanooga. His artillery im- 
mediately opened fire upon the enemy's works, while the 
infantry approached to within six hundred yards and drove 
the rebel sharpshooters from their places of shelter. Having 
again silenced the enemy and driven him from the town, 
Colonel Scribner marched for the Sequatchie Valley; and 
this was the end of the Chattanooga expedition. The forces 
were withdrawn with rapidity and divided. General Turchin's 
brigade being stationed at Battle Creek, and General Negley 
with the remainder of the force pursuing Starns via the Alta- 
mont and Thierman road. 

Returning to Shelbyville by way of Manchester, he resumed 
command at Columbia, where he remained until its evacuation 
on the Slst of August following. 

General Negley ruled with an iron hand at Columbia. The 
country, under former commanders, had been infested with guer- 
rillas. Men suspected of belonging to these bands were arrested, 
and the guilty were punished. The new ruler soon became dis- 
tasteful to the citizens. His manners and kindly mode of doing 
his duty prevented their hating him; but they feared him. 
"With a small force, a good deal of energy, and the daily illus- 
trated determination to punish the guilty, he kept the country 
quiet and free of guerrillas. He instituted a military prison, 
into which many rabid rebels found their way. If drunken sol- 
diers committed outrages, he made the man who sold the liquor 
pay the damages. 

Even those who had once been advocates of the tender, con- 



100 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

siderate, and forgiving policy which has since been designated 
as the " rose-water" system were at length compelled to 
acknowledge the correctness of General ITegley's conclusions. 
Many who had thought that severity could do no good, and who 
were sorry when General Buell passed throiigh the State and 
left it to the not over-tender mercies of Generals Negley and 
Mitchel, soon found their mistake; and when General Buell 
returned and reinstated his " rose-water" policy it was made tho- 
roughly manifest. The rebels flew to General Buell for protection 
from the iron rule of Negley. The screws were taken oif; and 
the natural result followed. The country was overrun with guer- 
rillas. The citizens formed guerrilla bands in every county, 
giving an almost inconceivable amount of trouble. So great 
was it, in one way, that it kept Buell's army on half-rations. 
The guerrillas organized in such force that they actually captured 
whole regiments, as at Murfreesborough, A short time before 
the evacuation of Columbia, General Negley received information 
that sixty guerrillas had attacked eight of his men in a log house 
within five miles of his head-quarters, and had demanded their 
surrender. The men refused. Eeinforcements were sent; but the 
guerrillas had disappeared. It afterwards appeared in proof 
that these guerrillas were citizens, and that they had demanded 
the surrender of the eight men by a flag of truce cai'ried by a 
lone woman. 

The general was no respecter of rebel rights or property. He 
was the first officer in General Buell's department to use slaves 
as teamsters. He levied taxes upon the Secessionists, and in all 
his district guarded the property of but two men, one John 
Morgan, and General Gideon Pillow. The premises of the first 
were guarded to protect the horses of Mr, Morgan, who was an 
ardent, uncompromising Union man. The guard over the jDro- 
perty x)f General Pillow was instructed to take care of four 
hundred head of United States horses which were quartered 
there for some four months. These horses were broken-down 
animals left behind by General Buell's army, and were collected 
together and recruited upon rebel pastures. Towards rebel 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 101 

sympathizers, as well as those actively engaged in guerrilla or 
regular warfare, he was unrelentingly severe. He also struck a 
blow at the States' Eights doctrine by requiring of every 
one who applied for a pass, oaths of allegiance, fortified by 
heavy bonds. 

On the 11th of August, 1862, General Negley planned an 
expedition against a guerrilla band of about five hundred men 
who were constantly hovering about Mount Pleasant, "Williamson, 
and Hillsborough. He sent by the way of Spring Hill to 
borough a cavalry force of about three hundred, and by way 
of Williamson one of about one hundred and fifty troops. The 
detachment sent to Spring Hill met a party of the guerrillas, about 
three hundred strong, a few miles beyond that place j and a sharp 
skirmish ensued, resulting in the total rout of the enemy, with 
a loss of thirty killed and wounded and forty-five prisoners. 
The remainder, retreating towards Hillsborough, came in con- 
tact with the force sent by way of Williamson, when a hand-to- 
hand engagement occurred, and the rebels, again completely 
routed, took to the woods and hills. Some of them were found 
concealed in hollow logs, others under jutting rocks, having 
thrown their arms into the creek. A number, when caught, 
declared, with a fine show of innocence, that they were " only 
out squirrel-hunting." 

It having been determined to abandon Northern Alabama and 
Southern Tennessee in order to be able to cope with Bragg in 
Kentucky, a gradual withdrawal of the forces began in the latter 
part of August. The evacuation of the line of railroad under 
General Negley's command took place under very peculiar cir- 
cumstances, involving danger to a large amount of rolling stock 
and Government property. The commandant at Nashville with- 
drew the guard of the railroad bridges at Elk Eiver and Eichland 
Creek, while four trains and two regiments of infantiy were 
between the two. The bridges were destroyed by Biflles's re- 
giment of rebel cavalry, thus rendering retreat by rail impos- 
sible; and the officer in command of the trains would have 
burned the^i and the Government property but for the timely 




102 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

interference of General Negley, who started from Columbia on 
the 27th of August, with a force of two hundred infantry and 
his cavalry escort, leaving Captain Lowrie, his adjutant-gene- 
ral, with but ninety men, to guard Columbia. He marched to 
Reynolds's Station, got the trains under way, and arrived with 
them at Eichland Creek. Here he impressed all the negroes in 
the vicinity, and constructed a bridge by means of timber and 
cotton-bales, over which he passed the entire force and trains, 
ninning them safely to Nashville. 

Soon after his return. General Negley was ordered to evacuate 
Columbia with his command. The evacuation was admirably 
accomplished, all the beef-cattle in the surrounding country 
being collected and driven to Nashville, and one hundred thou- 
sand bushels of corn, together with all the commissary, quar- 
termaster's, and ordnance stores, the sick, and even the hospital 
furniture, being shipped safely to that city. 

The occupation of Nashville during the two months when 
the city was isolated and cut off from communication with 
the North constitutes a feature in this war as novel as it is 
interesting. In the space to which we are confined, it is hardly 
possible to present as graphically as we desire the strange and 
novel picture. Assuming command on the 6th of September, 
with two small divisions as a garrison. General Negley found 
himself shut up with but five days' provisions in a city weakly 
fortified and strongly menaced, with a hostile people within his 
besieged lines to rule and to watch. "With the aid of Captain 
Morton, chief engineer, he pushed forward to early completion 
the forts which Subsequently became known as " Forts Negley," 
" Andrew Johnson," " Confiscation," and " Casino," and esta- 
blished a complete and thorough picket-line, strengthened by 
rifle-pits and heavy abatis, soon making the city one of the best- 
fortified in the country. At the same time he reorganized the 
8th Division, composed of fractions of brigades and regiments 
left, by reason of non-organization, to add to the garrison at 
Nashville. He also formed a regiment out of the convalescents 
of various regiments left by Buell's army in th^ rear. He 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 103 

made new laws for the regulation and control of the hostile 
citizens within his lines, and soon began at Nashville the process 
of government which had produced such happy results at Colum- 
bia. Perhaps in no city in the South had our army met with so 
bitter a reception as at Nashville. The intense hatred of the 
Secessionists of Nashville for the Union troops displayed itself 
in the most contemptuous expressions and incidents. As an 
instance, we transcribe the following inscription, written in a 
female hand on the window-shutter of a house in Nashville then 
used by us as a hospital : — 

" I hope that every officer who enters this house may depart 
this life in double-quick time ; that they may suffer the torture 
of ten thousand deaths before they die. And paralyzed be the 
hand that would alleviate their sufferings ; and may the tongue 
of him who would speak words of comfort cleave to the roof of 
his mouth. And as for the Yankee women who are hungry for 

the spoils, may but cursed are they already. God bless the 

Southern cause ! curse the Northern, and all that fight for it!" 

General Negley did not confine his operations to the govern- 
ment of the rebel citizens or the fortification of the city. Re- 
peated sallies were made upon the guerrilla bands, and foraging- 
parties went many miles into the country, invariably meeting with 
success. Shortly after assuming command, he surprised Ben- 
nett's rebel cavalry at Goodlettsville, and, after a short but 
Bharp contest, completely routed him, capturing forty prisoners 
and most of their horses and entirely destroying the regiment 
as an organization. 

One of the most complete and successful expeditions of the 
whole war was carried into effect, October 7, by General Neg- 
ley, assisted by General Palmer, resulting in the victory of 
Lavergne. It is worthy of note that the information of General 
Negley regarding the rebels at Lavergne was found cori-ect in 
the minutest circumstances, and also that his plan and orders 
regarding the expedition were carried out and followed with a 
fidelity which reflects great credit upon the officers acting under 
him. 



104 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

General Negley ordered General Palmer to move with his 
command, and instructed Colonel Miller to co-operate in the 
movement. The whole force moved promptly at nine o'clock 
on the night of Monday, the 6th of OctoTser, on the Murfrees- 
borough road, while Miller took a direction to the left of the 
railroad. Palmer arrived at Lavergne at half-past three o'clock 
on Tuesday morning. Miller did not arrive in front of the 
enemy until the battle bad begun, which was at daybreak. 
Before the encounter General Palmer captured some rebel 
pickets at Lavergne, and sent them to Nashville. The enemy, 
under General S. E. Anderson, opened upon Palmer, and at- 
tempted to flank him by throwing the 32d Alabama on his right. 
They also opened fire with one gun; but Houghtaling's battery, 
a short distance off, returned fire from two sections, and the 
second shot from our artillery went through the enemy's p-owder- 
magazine, causing its complete destruction. 

When the Alabama regiment above referred to made its 
demonstration upon Palmer's flank, Miller's force had just 
arrived through a cornfield, and he threw his force across their 
front and on the Murfreesborough road on the right, while the 
78th Pennsylvania Infantry formed in front of the retreating 
enemy when he attempted to pass his line to the left. Colonel 
Sirwell threw his regiment rapidly by the left flank, completely 
in front of the enemy in that direction. During this time the 
artillery was playing upon them with telling effect. The cavalry 
dashed against the line of the 78th, but was met by a succes- 
sion of volleys of musketry. The 32d Alabama quickly threw 
down their arms, and the cavalry displayed a white flag, but the 
captain of our artillerj^, not seeing it, kept on firing. The cavalry 
then broke, and fled in great confusion to the woods. Mean- 
while the 18th Ohio had arrived nearly at the place where the 
enemy's artillery made the first stand, and, by order of Colonel 
Miller, deployed as skirmishers to sweep the woods recently 
occupied by the Alabama regiment. The men swept the woods 
back to the rebel camps, and took numerous prisoners, — among 
them Colonel Maury. General Negley at an early hour on 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 105 

Tuesday morning, deeming it expedient to risk no sacrifice of 
troops, sent out reinforcements from Nashville, when they were 
met by the victorious troops on their return. 

The rebels had but one gun, which was captured. "We also 
took from them four hundred small arms, a regimental stand of 
colors, fifty-six loads of flour, several hundred-weight of bacon, 
forty beeves, and a large number of horses. Our loss, as far as 
ascertained, was four killed and seven wounded. The rebel loss 
was thii'ty killed and eighty wounded, and three hundred 
prisoners, comprising two colonels, several captains and lieu- 
tenants, some ordnance officers, and a squad of sergeants and 
corporals. 

On the 19th of October, General Negley also succeeded in 
routing Forrest's cavalry while crossing the Cumberland Eiver. 
The following is his brief official report of the affair, which 
reflected much credit on all concerned : — 

"Head-Quarteks U.S. Forces, Nashville, Tennessee, October 20, 1862. 
" Yesterday General Forrest commenced crossing a consider- 
able force of cavalry over the Cumberland. The advance, about 
one thousand strong, encamped on the Gallatin pike seven miles 
from Nashville. I immediately sent a force under Colonel 
Miller, who attacked the enemy at daylight, speedily routing 
and driving them back over the river. In their consternation, 
they lost one of their cannon overboard from a flat-boat in re- 
crossing, and strewed the pathway of their flight with arms 
(all new) and knapsacks. But few killed or wounded. A num- 
ber of prisoners, including a colonel. The 78th Pennsylvania 
behaved handsomely. The result was very satisfactory, — espe- 
cially as it is the third time we have completely routed the 
enemy's forces near Nashville. 

" James S. Negley, 
" Brigadier- General commanding. 
" To Colonel James B. Fry, Adj. -Gen. and Chief of Staff." 

The rebel forces concentrated at Murfreesborough to operate 



106 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

against Nashville were under the command of Major-Gen jral 
John C. Breckinridge. He had succeeded in accumulating about 
five thousand infantry, an unknown force of cavalry, and a large 
amount of artillery, principally of a heavy character, and on 
November 5 made an attack on the city with his cavaliy. At 
two o'clock on the morning of the 5th, Forrest, with three thou- 
sand men and four pieces of artillery, opened fire on our pickets 
on the Lebanon and Murfreesborough roads, driving them in, — 
they, in accordance with orders, making but feeble resistance, 
Negley indulging in the hope of drawing the enemy under the 
fire of the forts. 

Abput the same hour a similar cavalry force under Morgan, 
two thousand five hundred strong, with one gun, attacked the 
works on the north side of the river, defending the approaches 
to the railroad and pontoon bridges, to destroy which was pro- 
bably their purpose. The forces holding these defences quickly 
and gallantly repulsed the enemy ; while about the same time 
the guns of Fort Negley opening on Forrest, his forces were 
dispersed and driven back. The enemy, however, soon rallied 
on the south, and took position with their cavalry and infantry 
a little bej^ond the original picket-line. Colonel Eoberts, with 
two regiments of infantry and one section of artillery, advanced 
on the Murfreesborough road, while General Negley, with the 
69th Ohio, 78th Pennsylvania, 14th Michigan, and a cavalry 
force, marched out on the Franklin road, quickly driving the 
enemy from their position there, who then fell back, closely pur- 
sued, seven miles from the city. At this point Colonel Stokes's 
Tennessee Cavalry was ordered to charge the rear of the 
retreating rebels ; but their main body had succeeded in making 
a detour to the left, and, in the excitement of the charge, the 
cavalry and infantry pursued a small force in the direction of 
Franklin. 

The enemy, with the view to cut ofi" Negley from the city, soon 
appeared in his rear with the force making the detour, and 
planted a battery near the road. On learning of this movement. 
General Negley changed front, and advanced on the enemy in 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. lO'i 

their new positioB. The artillery was soon got into action, and 
the battery of the rebels was disabled, — shortly after which 
they retired in confusion, with heavy loss. It was soon after 
ascertained that the enemy, greatly outnumbering our forces, 
were about to make a charge with cavalry on Negley's flanks ; 
and he slowly retired towards the city and to more favorable 
ground. Stokes's cavalry were so disposed as to divert the 
expected charge upon the rear; and the 14th Michigan was 
stationed in such a manner that when the charge came the 
enemy were received with so destructive a fire that they were 
driven back in great disorder. 

They then attempted to plant their artillery on the turn- 
pike, but were driven from that position before the guns could 
be discharged. General Negley still continued to retire towards 
the city, the enemy making but one more effort to get in his 
rear. In this attempt they were completely foiled by the reserve 
force, which had been ordered forward. 

Colonel Eoberts, on the Murfreesborough road, met with 
equal success, and drove the enemy back in confusion. Their 
loss here was four killed and seventeen wounded, and about 
one hundred and fifty horses, which were captured running at 
large in the woods. The entire loss of the rebels was never 
known, but was reported to be heavy. Twenty-three prisoners, 
including two captains from Morgan's command, were taken. 
Our casualties were none killed, twenty-six wounded, and nine- 
teen missing. 

On the following day the advance of the Army of the Cum- 
berland appeared at Nashville, and the famous siege was 
raised. 

General Negley next comes prominently into view at the 
bloody battle of Stone Eiver, in which he was a distinguished 
actor. On the evening before the great battle of December 
31, his division had skirmished and fought into position, as 
the centre division of the army, on a rolling ridge where 
begins the slope to the west bank of Stone Eiver. The right 
rested upon the Wilkerson Pike, hinging on to Sheridan's division, 



lOS ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

while tlie line, diverging from the road, ran through a thicket 
and rested upon the right division of General Crittenden's corps. 
In the rear of the division was the since famous " Cedars," — 
that dark, gloomy, and almost impassable forest, which, ere the 
day was over, witnessed one of the bloodiest contests of modern 
days. In his front, intrenched in an oak forest, were the divi- 
sions of Withers and Cheatham, holding the key to the com- 
manding position which Bragg had deliberately chosen, resting 
behind the tetes-de-pont erected to protect the bridges by which 
he eventually retired. From this position the rebels had a com- 
manding view of our whole field. 

Early upon the morning of the last day of 1862, the enemy in 
force attacked the three divisions of McCook by a rapid advance 
upon their lines, and simultaneously the artillery of Withers 
opened furiously on Negley and Eousseau, receiving a rapid 
and destructive fire in return ; while on McCook's left General 
Sheridan manfully withstood the impetuous assaults of Cheat- 
ham, and thrice repulsed him. The rebels of JVIcCown and 
Cleborno met with better success, as opposed to the divi- 
sions of Generals Johnson and Davis, who were driven before 
the superior numbers of the advancing foe, leaving the as 
yet successful Sheridan and Negley to be flanked and ovei-- 
powered by the enemy, now in their rear. About eleven o'clock 
Sheridan sent word to Negley that his ammunition was ex- 
hausted; and about the same time his division began to fall back 
through the " Cedars." Negley's artillery, having been hotly 
engaged for four hours, was also short of ammunition. The 
rebels were in his rear, and already pouring a cross-fire into his 
column. Unflinchingly the division had withstood for four long 
hours the destructive fire of the enemy, dying like brave men 
in their ranks. At last, our troops retiring from his right and 
from his left to form on a new line which General Eousseau was 
establishing in the rear of the " Cedars," and there being a heavy 
column of rebel infantry in the forest, endeavoring to cut him 
off, Negley was forced to withdraw. He literally cut his 
way through the enemy, succeeding, with the timely aid of the 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLET. 109 

brigade of United States Eegulars which Eousseau sent to his 
assistance, in repulsing McCown's division and reaching safely 
a second position. With maddened fury Withers attacked him 
as he retired, but was again gallantly repulsed. " Out of the 
* Cedars' safely !" is an eulogium pronounced upon Negley and 
Sheridan whenever the phrase is uttered; for to say that they 
brought their men off safely from their perilous position is to 
declare them generals of superior ability, and to say of their 
men that each was a hero. 

In the second position to which he was ordered, General 
l^egley was permitted to rest for the remainder of the day. At 
noon on January 1, the division was sent to McCook's right, in 
anticipation of an attack upon the right wing; but none was 
made. On January 2, he was ordered to the left, to support 
Crittenden's corps, and took position in the rear of the line and 
on the west bank of Stone River. 

On the events of the day following justly rests much of the 
reputation of General Negley. The troops of General Eosecrans 
were undeniably in rather low spirits. The repulse of our right 
wing when they had anticipated victory, the want of pro- 
visions, and various reports of rebel cavalry operations in our 
rear, tended to add to the prevailing despondency. Upon the 
afternoon of January 2, the second grand charge of the rebels 
was made. Their line had been naturally broken in their suc- 
cessful assault upon General Van Cleve's small division, and they 
were gathering themselves for a further advance and to cross 
the river, when General Kegley, having obtained permission, 
ordered a charge of his whole division, now formed in echelon 
of brigades. His men sprang forward upon the double-quick, with 
fixed bayonets, and with cheers, evincing that the noble deter- 
mination and enthusiasm of the corps were unbroken. The 
division crossed the river at a rapid rate, flanking the 2d and 
4th Kentucky (rebel) Eegiments — already at and nearly across 
the river — and forcing them to retreat, and immediately attacked 
.Preston's brigade, capturing the 2Gth Tennessee Eegiment and 
the battery it was supporting. At the same time the numerous 



110 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

batteries massed by General Eosecrans on the west bank of the 
river were playing furiously upon the rebels. The enemy re- 
coiled before the terrible fire of these batteries and the into- 
lerable fire and charge of Negley's division. Yainly attempting 
to rally his troops, Hanson fell, and the men fled in confusion. 
Breckinridge's staff officers were falling around him, Preston's 
brigade was scattered over the field, and the Washington (Ga.) 
Artillery, serving with Jackson's brigade, was in our hands; 
and now the enemy's entire right wing fled in general and utter 
confusion, pursued by Negley. Not once did they attempt to 
rally until behind the intrenchments from whence they had 
advanced. 

The brief battle of the 2d was one of the bloodiest upon record. 
The rebels estimated their loss at the time at two thousand five 
hundred ; but a month later a rebel newspaper declared, on the 
authority of Colonel Dana, of Breckinridge's staflF, that their loss 
was two thousand eight hundred in the two hours' fight. 

When night closed in, General Eosecrans ordered the division 
of General Negley to recross the river and resume its former 
position. On the morning of January 4, one of his brigades was 
ordered in pursuit of the retiring enemy; and on the 5th General 
Negley, with the rest of his command, went forward and con- 
tinued the pursuit of the enemy, driving him rapidly and with 
considerable loss many miles south of Murfreesborough. 

For his gallant conduct in the contest of Stone Eiver, General 
Negley was specially commended by General Eosecrans and 
recommended for promotion to a major-generalship, which has 
s'ince been bestowed upon him. 

In person General Negley is a little above the medium height, 
stoutly built, with a healthy, florid complexion, and pleasing 
countenance. His manners are genial and courteous ; he is easy 
of approach, being quite destitute of that official frigidity which 
repels acquaintance; and he is devoid of that ceremonious punc- 
tilio which measures friendship by rank and worth by position. 
Among his men he is very popular both because of his affability 
and his bravery. Mild and determined, generous and just, he is 



CAPTAIN CHARLES T. WING. IH 

recognized throughout the army as a strict disciplinarian and a 
correct administrative officer. Treason and rebellion meet with 
no sympathy at his hands. In them he sees only crimes worthy 
of the severest punishment, and upon their advocates he draws a 
constantly tightening rein. His rule at Columbia — severe but 
just, once much condemned, because in advance of its time, in 
advance of public sentiment, yet attended with happiest results, 
— is an index of this phase of his character. 

As a commander, he has the confidence of his superiors, — a 
confidence that has not been misplaced. Quick to see and prompt 
to act, he has proved himself a general in his skilful defence of 
Nashville and upon the bloody field of Stone Eiver. 



THE STAPF. 



Captain James A. Lowrie, Assistant Adjutant- General, is the 
eldest son of Hon. TV. H. Lowrie, Chief-Justice of Pennsylvania, 
and was born in the city of Pittsburg, January 23, 1833. In 
July, 1851, he graduated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and 
in December, 1854, was admitted to the bar at Pittsburg. He 
practised his profession until April 17, 1861, when he enlisted 
for the three-months sei-vice, and served with General Negley, 
in Maryland and Virginia, until August 8, 1861. On the 7th of 
October, 1861, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general, with 
the rank of captain, and assigned to the staff of General Negley, 
with whom he has served constantly until the present time. 
• 
Captain Charles T. "Wing, Quartermaster^ was born in Gam- 
bier, Knox county, Ohio, January 14, 1836, and graduated at 
Kenyon College in August, 1853. He removed to Columbus the 
same month, and was engaged in book-keeping for various 
mercantile houses and for the State Treasury Department until 
October 31, 1861, when he was appointed captain and assistant 



112 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

quartermaster of volunteers, and assigned to the post of Evans- 
ville, Indiana, in the Dej)artnient of the Ohio. Here he remained 
until May 5, 1862, when he was relieved and ordered to Pitts- 
burg Landing, Tennessee, where he was placed on duty with 
the 7th Division, then in front of Corinth and under command 
of Brigadier-General T. W. Sherman. June 26 he was ordered 
to the posts of Eastport and luka, from which he was relieved 
July 27, and on the 7th of August stationed as post quarter- 
master at Dechard, Tennessee. 

On the 7th of September he was assigned to duty with the 8th 
Division, then at Nashville and commanded by General I^egley. 
In this capacity he served ably and faithfully until January 9, 
1863, when he was temporarily relieved from duty and assigned 
as post quartermaster at Murfreesborough, Tennessee. His 
ability in this position, for four active, arduous months, is uni- 
versally conceded. May 1, 1863, he was relieved from duty as 
post quartermaster, and returned to his division, now the second 
of the 14th Army Corj^s. 

Captain G. M. Lafayette Johnson, Division Inspector^ was 
born in "Warren county, Ohio, November 4, 1837 ; but his early 
years were spent at Wilmington, Clinton county, Ohio. At the 
age of fourteen he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was 
engaged in mercantile pursuits up to the age of twenty-one. 
He then accepted a situation in a prominent mercantile house of 
New York, where he remained till the commencement of the 
rebellion, when he returned to Ohio and began recruiting for 
the artillery service. Being proflFered a position, however, in a 
regiment already formed at Indianapolis, Indiana, he accepted 
it, and was commissioned October 5, 1861, as first lieutenant #f 
Company D, 2d Indiana Cavalry, and was promoted to captain 
in the same regiment, March, 1862. He folloAved the varj'ing 
fortunes of the regiment till the fight at Gallatin, Tennessee, 
August 21, 1862, against General John Morgan, when he received 
injuries from which he was detained for several weeks in hos- 
pital at Nashville. When sufficiently recovered, he reported 



CAPTAIN JAMES R. HAYDEN. 113 

for duty to the post commandant of Xasliville, — General Negley. 
— who assigned him to duty as a member of his staff, where 
he is now acting as division inspector. 

Captain James E. Hayden, Ordnance Officer, was born in Os- 
wego, New York, February 22, 1839, and removed to the city of 
Chicago in 1852, of which place he has since been a resident. 

Captain Hayden's attention was directed towards military 
pursuits long before the breaking out of the present rebellion. 
As early as 1856 we find his name on the roll of the " Chicago 
National Guard Cadets," of which company the present colonel 
of the 19th Illinois Volunteers was at that time captain. After 
the disbanding of that corps, Captain Hayden became one of 
the most active assistants of the late Colonel Ellsworth in organ- 
izing the company which afterwards became so famous under the 
title of the " Chicago Zouave Cadets," of which he was elected 
second ofiicer, and afterwards captain, vice Ellsworth, resigned, 
which position he held until the fall of Fort Sumter, when 
he was one of the first to respond to the call of his country, and 
raised the first company of volunteers for the war from Chicago, 
the date of its organization being April 16, 1861, and that of its 
departure from Chicago for the seat of war, April 19, 1861. At 
this time Captain Haj'den had been elected major of Colonel 
Ellsworth's "Fire Zouaves;" but, receiving no notification of 
his election until he was on the way to Cairo with his new 
company, he did not accept the position. At the expiration of 
the three-months service the same company re-enlisted under 
Captain Hayden for three years, leaving Chicago again on the 
12th day of August, 1861. 

Captain Hayden has seen hard service since that time, in 
Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, and has proved 
himself a brave and efficient officer. On the 27th of August. 
1862, while in charge of a train on the Nashville & Chatta- 
nooga Eailroad, and having but seventy-five men under his 
command, he repulsed with severe loss a force of six hundred 
rebel cavalry who made an attack upon the train. Captain 



114 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND. 

Hayden is the senior captain of the State of Illinois, and during 
the fall of 1862 was in command of his own regiment for the 
period of three months. He was suhsequently assigned to duty 
on the staff of Major-General Negley, as division ordnance 
oflScer, which position he has since occupied. 



Major Ferdinand H. Gross, Medical Director. Though at pre- 
sent medical director of the 14th Army Corps, it is proper to 
represent Major Gross in connection with the staif of Major- 
General Negley, his services up to a late date having been almost 
entirely with that officer. 

Surgeon Gross was born in Gutenberg, Germany, August 
18, 1831. His father. Dr. Hermann Gross, emigrated with his 
family to America in 1833, and settled in Somerset county, Penn- 
sylvania, but remained there only two years, when he esta- 
blished himself as a practising physician in the city of Pittsburg. 

Youno; Gross there received his education, and at "Washing-ton 
<^ollege, a popular institution of learning in an adjoining county. 
On leaving this institution he entered upon the study of medi- 
cine, under the direction of his father, preparatory to attending 
lectures. Subsequently he attended the medical colleges of 
Cleveland, Ohio, the University of the City of New York, and 
the Jciferson Medical College at Philadelphia, — at the latter of 
which he graduated, March 10, 185-5. Eeturning to Pittsburg, 
he joined with his father in the practice of medicine and surgery, 
continuing with but an intermission of a spring and summer 
which he spent on a visit to England and the continent of 
Europe. At the breaking out of the war, when General Xegley 
raised his brigade in Pittsbui"g and the adjoining county, a 
number of medical gentlemen offered their serAaces, and among 
them Dr. Gross, who was appointed by General Neglcj^ to the 
position of brigade-surgeon. It was subsequently discovered, 
however, that no provisions for brigade-surgeons had been made 
in the call of the President for troops. Dr. Gross, having enlisted 
as a private in the 13th Eegiment Pennsylvania "Volunteers, was 
immediately detached fi-om the regiment and commissioned by 



MAJOR FERDINAND H. GROSS. 115 

Governor Curlm as aide-de-camp, with the rank of captain. In 
this position he served during the three-months service on the 
staff of General Negley, and participated in Patterson's cam- 
paign in Maryland and Virginia. 

At the close of the three-months service, being desirous of 
entering that branch of the service for which his professional 
acquirements best fitted him, Captain Gross appeared before the 
Medical Examining Board of Pennsylvania ; and, being recom- 
mended by the Board, he was commissioned by Governor Curtin 
as surgeon. He acted as medical officer to the 100th Pennsyl- 
vania Eegiment, then stationed near Washington, and commanded 
by Colonel D. Leasure. On the 17th of October, 1861, Surgeon 
Gross was appointed by the President to the position of brigade- 
surgeon, and he was so commissioned, and again ordered to join 
General ISTegley's command, then in the Army of the Ohio, 
operating in Kentucky. 

Upon the 8th Division being organized on the 5th of Sep- 
tember, we find Surgeon Gross announced as medical director 
of the division. During the defence of Nashville he re- 
mained with this command. On the advance of General Eose- 
crans's army to Murfreesborough, Surgeon Gross moved with the 
8th Division, and participated in the bloody engagement of Stone 
River. 

By unexpected changes in the line of battle, the hospital 
established by him on the 30th of December fell into the hands 
of the enemy on the morning of the 31st; but, partly through his 
efforts, nearly the entire ambulance train of the division was 
saved. Having been cut off from his hospital while with the 
staff, he remained engaged upon the field the entire day. After 
uightfall on December 31, he succeeded, by co-operating with 
General Rousseau's medical director, in re-establishing hospitals 
and obtaining shelter for the wounded on the Murfreesborough 
and Nashville road. 

After the battle of Stone River, Surgeon Gross remained on 
the staff of General Negloy until March 31, when, by order of 
General Rosecrans, he was promoted and assigned as medical 



116 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND. 

director to the 14th Army Corps, and attached to the staff of 
Major-General Thomas, in vrhich capacity he is now acting. 

Major Eoswell G. Bogue, Medical Director, was born at 
Louisville, St. Lawrence county, New York, May 3, 1832. At 
the time the rebellion broke out he was a practising physician 
in Chicago, Illinois, and on the 3d of August, 1861, was ap- 
pointed surgeon of the 19th Illinois Infantry. This position he 
retained until March 31, 1863, when he was detached from his 
regiment and appointed medical director of General Negley's 
division. 

Lieutenant Nathan D. Ingraham, Topographical Engineer, 
was born at Granger, Medina county, Ohio, on the 18th day of 
May, 1835. He removed to Lockport, Will county, Illinois, in 
June, 1844, and was married at Gooding's Grove, Will county, 
to Miss Euth Gooding, daughter of James Gooding, Esq., on the 
27th of jSTovember, 1854. He went to the Eocky Mountains in 
July, 1860, and returned January, 1862. He enlisted as private 
in Comj)any F, 100th Eegiment Illinois Yolunteer Infantry, 
July 25, 1862, and was commissioned first lieutenant of the same 
company August 30 following. He served with his company in 
General Buell's march through Kentucky, in pursuit of ^ragg, 
in the fall of 1862, and, arriving at Nashville, Tennessee, Novem- 
ber 26, 1862, reported to Captain J. C. St. Clair Morton (now 
Brigadier-General Morton) on the 27th as lieiitenant in com- 
mand of a detachment of pioneers, and was ordered to Gallatin, 
Tennessee, to work on fortifications, returning to Nashville 
December 13. On the 26th he was ordered by Captain Morton 
to report to General Negley as topographical engineer, which 
he did at Nolensville. At the battle of Stone Eiver he was acting 
aide-de-camp to General Negley, as well as topographical engi- 
neer. By profession he is a surveyor and engineer. 

Lieutenant Charles C. Cooke, Aide-de-Camp, was born at 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1837. At the commence- 



LIEUTENANT W. W. BARKER. 117 

ment of the present rebellion he enlisted as a private in the 
ranks of the United States Zouave Cadets, a company then 
forming at Pittsburg, all of the members of which responded to 
the call for seventy-five thousand men by President Lincoln, 
April 12, 1861. In response to the call for six hundred thousand 
men, he enlisted and served as private in Company E, 77th 
Eegiment Pennsylvania Infantry, said regiment composing a 
part of the Pennsylvania brigade, commanded by General James 
S. Negley, which landed at Louisville, Kentucky, October 22, 
1861. October 31, 1861, he was elected by his comrades as 
second lieutenant of the company, in which position he remained 
one month, when he was assigned to duty as aide-de-camp on 
the staff of General Negley. 

Captain W. H. H. Taylor was born at ]Srorth Bend, Hamil- 
ton county, Ohio, on the 21st day of March, 1837. His father 
is now in command of the 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. His 
mother was the youngest daughter of President Harrison. He 
entered the service as private in the first company that left 
Cincinnati, Ohio, for the defence of the city of Washington. 
He was appointed a first lieutenant in the 18th U.S. Infantry, 
May 14, 1861, and promoted captain August 11, 1862. His occu- 
pation before he entered the service was that of a farmer. 

Lieutenant "W. W. Barker, Commissary of Subsistence, was 
born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1839, and at the 
commencement of the present rebellion was engaged in the pro- 
duce and commission business in that city. Upon the call for 
seventy-five thousand three-months troops in April, 1861, he 
enlisted as a private in Company 1, 12th Eegiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, one of the regiments composing General ISTegley's 
1st Brigade, but was detached from his command May, 1861, 
and stationed on the Northern Central Eailroad, near Baltimore. 

He afterwards enlisted as sergeant in Company B, 77th Penn- 
sj'lvania Volunteers, September 13, 1861, and was detailed to 
the commissary department of General Xegley's brigade at 



118 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1861, in which department 
he served until July 25, 1862, when he was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Andrew Johnson, lieutenant of Company B, 1st Eegiment 
Tennessee Cavalry, and reported to General Negley at Columbia, 
Tennessee, for recruiting service. September 16, 1862, he was 
detailed as aide-de-camp to General I^egley, then commanding the 
post of Nashville, and assigned to the command of his escort of 
cavalry. During the battle of Stone Eiver, the escort was used 
as a courier line, and Lieutenant Barker acted as aide to the 
general. After the battle he was recommended to the President 
for promotion to commissary of subsistence, with the rank of 
captain. February 13, 1863, he was ordered on duty in the 
commissary department as acting commissary of the 2d Division, 
14th Army Corps 

Lieutenant E. H. Cochran, Provost-Marshal and Judge-Advo- 
cate, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, May 25, 1836. His 
father was an honest, frugal farmer, grandson of Captain Thomas 
Cochran, who was slain by the Indians in West Virginia during 
the Eevolutionary "War. His mother is a daughter of Ellis 
Davis, deceased, who was a soldier in the War of 1812 and one 
of the early settlers of Ohio. In September, 1861, young 
Cochran entered the service as first lieutenant in the 15th Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry. At the battle of Lavergne, October 7, 1862, 
he was aide to Brigadier-General Palmer, where the enemy 
under the rebel General Anderson were signally defeated. At 
the request of General Negley, he was soon after appointed 
provost-marshal on the general's staff by special order of Major- 
General Eosecrans. 



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J,B LIPPINCOTT & CO.PHILAD-^ 



Pujor-dleneral John Pcjiukg |almcr and ^ta((. 

John McAuley Palmer was born on Eagle Creek, Scott 
county, Kentucky, September 13, 1817. His father, Louis D. 
Palmer (who is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-two), 
emigrated to Kentucky from Northumberland county, Virginia, 
in the year 1793, and was there married in 1813 to Miss Ann 
Tutt, a native of Culpepper county, Virginia. The ancestors 
of the family were from England, and among the earliest set- 
tlers of Virginia. 

At the time of the birth of the subject of this sketch, what 
was then known as the Green River country was beginning to 
attract attention, and the elder Palmer, a soldier in the War of 
1812, and fond of adventure, removed to Christian county, where 
he purchased a considerable quantity of the new cheap lands of 
that then almost wilderness, and engaged in farming. Here his 
son spent his childhood, attending the school taught in the 
neighborhood in winter, and rendering assistance upon the farm. 
This school was such as are common to early settlements. " To 
read and write and cipher" was the usual limit of the humble 
teacher's attainments ; and in these branches young Palmer made 
satisfactory progress. But by other means his education was 
greatly enlarged. His father, who was an ardent Jackson man. 
was unusually fond of reading, — which led him to procure 
books and the newspapers of the time, particularly those of 
his own party, which were afterwards well thumbed by the 
children. His father was also an earnest opponent of human 
slavery, and thoroughly impressed his opinions upon his chil- 
dren, the family being at that time known as warm anti-slavery 
Democrats. In 1831, these opinions of the elder Palmer deter- 
mined him to emigrate to the free States, and in that year he 

119 



120 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

removed to Madison county, Illinois, and settled about ten miles 
from Alton. 

The labor of improving a farm occupied the time until 1833, 
when the death of the mother broke up the family. About this 
time, the efforts which had for some time been making by the 
friends of education in Central Illinois to establish an institu- 
tion of learning at Upi)er Alton were crowned with partial 
success, and " Alton College" was organized and opened upon 
the " manual labor system." In the spring of 1834, the subject 
of our sketch, and his elder brother Elihu, who has since become 
a minister of the gospel, and is noted for his learning and eccen- 
tricities, entered this school. They were almost without money, 
but in its place were possessed of most sanguine hopes. Several 
months were thus spent; and in the fall of 1835 he graduated, 
for the want of money to further prosecute his studies ! From 
this time until the spring of 1889 he spent his time in a variety 
of ways. For a while he worked with a cooper; then he became 
a pedlar; and finally, in the fall of 1838, being then in Fulton 
county, Illinois, he was invited to take charge of a district 
school near Canton, which he taught " two quarters" to the 
apparent satisfaction of his patrons. During all this time he 
had been a constant reader of history, poetry, novels, sermons, 
and newspapers, and had amassed a respectable but most ill- 
arranged store of knowledge. In the summer of 1838 he first 
met with the late Senator Douglas, then a candidate for Con- 
gress and just entering upon his brilliant career. The district 
was large, and the vote close; but Douglas was young, eloquent, 
and a Democrat, and won at once the confidence of Palmer, who 
threw himself ardently into the contest and cast his first vote 
for the Democratic ticket. 

This acquaintance with the rising statesman, by inflaming 
young Palmer's ambition and spurring him to effort, probably gave 
stabilit}" to his purposes and tended to shape his future course 
in life. During the winter of 1838 he obtained a copy of 
'•Blackstone's Commentaries," and began a course of desultory 
reading with a view to the study of law, and in the sprang 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M^AULEY PALMER. 121 

of 1839 he entered the oflSce of John L. Greathouse, then a 
lawyer of considerable standing at Carlinville, Macoupin county. 
On arriving at Carlinville, having walked thither from St. Louis, 
his entire etock of money was fourteen dollars, and his wardrobe 
consisted of an indifferent suit of clothes and an extra shirt. 
Here he found his brother Elihu, who was now married and 
preaching to a congregation in Carlinville. This brother — like 
himself, careless of money, but full of hope — advised him to 
remain in that place and pui'sue his studies, offering to board 
him, with a rather indefinite understanding as to payment in 
return; and accordingly, as we have stated, he entered the office 
of Mr. Greathouse. 

In less than two months after this, at the request of the lead- 
ing Democratic politicians of the county, he became a candidate 
for the office of county clerk. He engaged actively in the can- 
vass, becoming involved in local politics to such ah extent that 
he has never since been able to extricate himself, — but was 
defeated by a majority of one hundred and twenty-one votes. 
In December, 1839, after less than a year's study, having 
managed to buy the cloth for a suit of clothes, and having 
found a good-natured tailor who had faith enough in him to 
make them up on credit, he set out for Springfield, with five 
dollars in his pocket which he had borrowed from his preceptor 
to pay his expenses, and obtained from the Supreme Court a 
license to practise as an attorney and counsellor-at-law. 

Mr. Douglas took much interest in the application, was ap- 
pointed one of the examiners, and wrote the license, which is 
still carefully preserved, displaying throughout a kindness 
which was ever remembered with gratitude during the long 
and bitter contests of later years. 

Our young attorney returned to Carlinville with the much- 
coveted license. His possessions consisted of a few books, the 
gift of Mr. David A. Smith, then, as now, an eminent Illinois 
lawyer, who, having supplied himself with new editions, kindly 
presented the old ones to the poor junior. He was not at onco 
successful; and the only reason that be did not leave the village 



122 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

and seek a new home was that he could not procure money 
enough to pay his debts. Often since then he has said that 
this early poverty lies at the foundation of whatever success he 
afterwards attained. 

In 1840 he participated in the canvass for the Presidency, 
earnestly supporting Mr. "Van Buren and the Democratic nomi- 
nees. In 1841 he devoted himself to his profession, his business 
having so increased that it afforded him a sufficient support. 
In 1842, being independent and self-minded, he made some 
personal enemies by refusing to support certain of the regular 
Democratic candidates. In December of that j^ear he was 
married. In 1843 he was elected probate justice of the county, 
by over four hundred majority. The years 1844, 1845, and 1846 
were spent in the practice of his profession, which had now 
become quite extensive. In 1847 he was elected to the Illinois 
State Constitutional Convention, and at the same election was 
defeated for probate justice by a combination formed against 
him. In 1848, his victorious competitor having resigned, he was 
again elected, by a large majority. In 1849 the new Constitution 
was adopted, and he was elected county judge, in which office he 
continued until 1851, when he was elected to the State Senate. 
In 1852, 1853, and 1854 he attended the sessions of that body. 
In the latter year he opposed the Nebraska bill. In 1855 he 
was re-elected to the Senate, and warmly supported many im- 
portant measures, such as the free-school system, homestead 
law, &c. In 1856 he was a member and president of the first 
Illinois Eepublican State Convention, held at Bloomiugton. He 
was also a delegate to the National Eepublican Convention, and 
advocated the nomination of Judge McLean, though personally 
preferring Fremont. He entered actively into the canvass, exert- 
ing himself for Fremont, having first resigned his seat in the 
State Senate, upon the ground that, having changed his political 
connections after his election, self-respect and a proper regard 
for the true principles of a representative government demanded 
such a course. In 1857 and 1858 he was engaged in State poli- 
tics, and in 1859 was nominated for Congress, but was defeated. 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MCAULEY PALMER. 123 

In 1860 he was a candidate for elector at large on the Eepub- 
lican ticket, was elected, and cast his vote for President Lincoln. 
In 1861 he was a delegate to the Peace Congress at "Washington. 
In that body he advocated the call of a national convention for 
the settlement of our difficulties. That proposition having failed, 
and still eager to avoid civil war, or, if it could not be avoided, 
to secure unity of action in the Northern and border States, he 
favored the measures of compromise finally recommended by the 
conference. 

When the second call for troops was made, he came forward 
as a common citizen and soldier, regardless of great home inte- 
rests, and was unanimously elected colonel of the 14th Illinois 
Volunteers. For a time he was stationed at Jacksonville, Illinois, 
equipping, drilling, and perfecting his regiment. Affairs be- 
coming threatening in Northern Missouri, the regiment was 
ordered thither, and during the month of July and the early part 
of August occupied various points on the Hannibal & St. Joseph 
and North Missouri Eailroads. On the 10th of August the 
regiment arrived at Jefferson Barracks, and on the 12th, in- 
formation having been received at St. Louis of the battle of 
"Wilson's Creek and the death of General Lyon, it was ordered 
to Eolla, reaching that place on the 13th. 

In September General Hunter assumed command at Eolla, 
and on the 23d of that month his command was ordered to Jef- 
ferson City, Missouri; and Colonel Palmer's regiment marched 
with him from that place, by the way of Tipton, "Warsaw, and 
Buffalo, to Springfield. On the 23d of October he was assigned 
to the command of a brigade by General Hunter, and returned 
with his brigade, after the removal of Fremont from the com- 
mand of the department, to Tipton, going afterwards into winter- 
quarters at Otterville. 

Colonel Palmer's brigade formed part of General Pope's expe- 
dition to Milford, which captured a large number of rebel prisoners. 
On the 20th of December he was commissioned brigadier-general, 
and placed in command of the post of Otterville. About the 1st 
of February, 1862, the forces at Otterville were ordered South, 



124 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

and General Palmer joined General Pope at Commerce, Missouri, 
for the expedition against New Madrid and Island No. 10. He 
commanded a division and took part in the operations before 
New Madrid, and on the 16th of March was ordered to occupy 
Eiddle's Point with his division and some heavy guns. This 
was done, the men dragging the guns along the river-bank at 
night, wading a great part of the way. The course of the Mis- 
sissii)pi Ptiver below Island No. 10, and the high stage of water, 
flooding the low-lands along its banks, made this a point of great 
importance in all operations against the enemy's works there. 
Island No. 10 is at the head of New Madrid bend. The river, 
after following its course for twenty miles, returns within five 
miles of the island. The bottom along the banks for nearly 
this whole distance was overfloAved; while at Tiptonville, Ten- 
nessee, within five miles of the island, the landing was good. 
Below Tiptonville the overflowed banks, and Eue Fort Lake to 
the south, cut off the rebel forces from the interior; and Com- 
modore Footc had the river above. The landing at Tiptonville, 
then, Avas the only point of approach to the island which was 
open to the enemy. It was to command this landing that the 
expedition was sent to Eiddle's Point, Avhich is directly opposite. 
On the morning of the 18th, at about sunrise, the rebels ou 
the gunboats below discovered the work of the night, and were 
in motion at once. One boat came slowly steaming up the river, 
so steadil}' that it seemed to make scarcely a ripple upon the 
surface. When this boat had approached Avithin about the dis- 
tance of a half-mile, she fired a twenty-four-pound gun. The 
shot came dashing along, and struck the water in front of the 
earth-Avork. The response Avas prompt from our .side. In a 
short time five other boats came up. A line was formed, and 
all opened upon Palmer's position. For tAvo hours this unequal 
contest was maintained, — tAvent}^ pieces from the gunboats keep- 
ing up a constant roar, the shot plunging into the sand and bury- 
ing the men in the ])its, or tearing limbs from the trees. The 
steady but sIoav firing from our guns made each report appear 
like the last effort of exhausted men. Eelying upon their 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M^ ALLEY PALMER 125 

superior fire, the boats approached the shore to hind ; but at the 
moment they got within one hundred yards of the shore the 
47th Indiana Eegiment, which occupied the rifle-pits, opened 
upon them with their rifles, and drove the men under cover. 

Two of the boats were seriously damaged, and, after the re- 
pulse by the infantry, all withdrew. 

After this the enemy made frequent efforts to reach the land- 
ing at Tiptonville, but were always repulsed. From this time 
until the reduction of the island, General Palmer's command was 
almost ince-ssantly engaged with the rebel gunboats, six of which 
were engaged in constant eff'orts to introduce supplies to the 
island or to pass transports for the removal of the troops. They 
were unable to silence our guns by their fire, and all eff'orts 
to land were frustrated by our riflemen occupying rifle-pits along 
the shore; so that the relief and escape of the rebels became 
alike impossible. 

After the capture of Island No. 10, General Pope's forces 
proceeded down the river to Fort Pillow, which was bom- 
barded for some days ; but before any definite result was attained 
they were ordered to join General Halleck before Corinth. 
On the 20th of April they landed at Hamburg, on the Ten- 
nessee Eiver, anc* General Pope then reorganizing his corps, 
General Palmer was assigned to the command of the 1st Brigade, 
1st Division, of the Army of the Mississippi, composed of the 
22d, 27th, 42d, and 51st Illinois Eegiments and Hescock's Bat- 
tery. As soon as all the regiments arrived, the army was put 
in motion, by short marches, for Corinth, with constant skirmishes 
along the front. 

On the 3d of May, General Palmer's division was ordered to 
make a reconnoissance in front of the enemy's fortifications at 
Corinth. The second brigade, under General Morgan, attacked 
the rebel pickets at Seven-Mile Creek, driving them into the 
open field north of Farmington, and, passing out of the 
woods, formed on the north of the Farmington Eoad. General 
Palmer, with two regiments of his brigade and a battery, formed 
to the left, and moved forward under a brisk fire from the rebel 



126 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

skirmishers. After an advance of some three hundred yards, a 
rebel battery, posted near the point at which the road from 
Farmington to Purdy crosses the Corinth road, opened fire. 
After a few shots from our guns and a charge in line, the enemy 
fled. At night the division recrossed Seven-Mile Creek and 
encamped in the rear of the swamp through which that sluggish 
stream flows; and the next day it was joined by General Pope's 
forces. 

On the 8th of May, Paine's division again crossed towards 
Corinth, advanced within a mile and a half of the fortifications, 
and, after skirmishing through the day, retired to camp. On the 
morning of the 9th, General Palmer was directed with his brigade 
to pass the swamp and camp near Farmington, which was then 
occupied by our pickets; and at nine o'clock the brigade, with its 
wagons and camp-equipage, was in motion. General Palmer, 
with a small escort, rode forward to select a suitable camping- 
ground. Between the crossing of the creek and the swamp 
(which was by a single I'oad and narrow bridge, the ground on 
both sides of which is impassable) and Farmington there is a 
cluster of woods, of small extent, about a mile from the cross- 
ing, and nearly the same distance from the town, which conceals 
the entrance of the road into the swamp from the direction of 
Farmington and Corinth. After passing this clump of woods a 
short distance and reaching the open ground, the Federal pickets 
were met coming in, and considerable numbers of the enemy, 
infantry and cavalry, were in sight. About fifty of the cavalry, 
seeing the general in advance of his command upon the crest of 
the hill, made a dash to capture him. They came on at full speed, 
demanding a surrender ; but, when they were within a hundred 
yards, two companies of infantry, which were concealed by the 
hill, opened fire upon them and emptied several saddles, where- 
upon the rest fled. 

By this time heavy bodies of infantry had filed through Farm- 
ington and formed in a line extending east towards a point of 
woods in that direction. This movement was made with the 
double view of discovcriiiir the Fedei'al forces behind the wood 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MCAULEY PALMER. 127 

before spoken of, and of getting possession of the road across 
the swamp. As soon as this force was discovered, dispositions 
were made to repel it. Colonel Eoberts, with part of the 51st 
Illinois and two or three companies from other regiments, 
was ordered to occupy a high piece of ground which covered 
our left. Major Walworth was directed to seize a point of 
woods on our right, and the remaining troops, parts of the 22d, 
27th, and 42d Illinois, formed in line, protected by some ravines 
and woods. 

About the time these arrangements were completed. General 
Palmer received orders from General Pope to retire across the 
swamp to camp. At that moment the narrow road and bridge 
aci'oss the swamp were crowded with wagons and a brigade 
of Stanley's division which had occupied the ground in the rear 
of Palmer's brigade. To add to the embarrassment of the 
situation, three rebel batteries had opened fire from three dif- 
ferent points, and heavy rebel forces had appeared upon the 
open ground in the direction of Corinth. Obedience to the 
order was, therefore, difficult. Wagons and baggage were ordered 
to the rear, however, and the determination formed to hold the 
enemy in check until the road could be cleared sufficiently to 
allow the trooj)s to retire. 

One section of Hescock's guns was by that gallant and skilful 
officer turned upon the battery upon the Federal right, and, 
after driving it off, was turned upon that to our left. The rebel 
infantry, in three divisions, came up in splendid style against 
our position. The 22d and 27th Illinois, protected as they were, 
received them with a galling fire, which at first checked them and 
then threw them into confusion, killing and wounding great num- 
bers. Still, as the fact of the immense force of the enemy was de- 
veloped, the danger of the little force opposed to them became 
i painfully manifest. The enemy, not knowing at first but that 
Pope's whole army was concealed by the clump of woods, ad- 
vanced slowly and cautiously, keeping up a tremendous cannonade 
from their eighteen guns. The Federal troops maintained their 
ground against this advance for two hours. About noon the 



128 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

rebels, having discovered, apparently, that Pope was not there, 
came on at a rapid pace, threatening to sweep every thing from 
the field, and were within twenty yards of our lines, when the 
troops were ordered to fall back. Walworth was withdrawn from 
the woods on the right, and had barely time to retire. The 22d 
and 27th Illinois retreated, closely pursued by the enemy, who 
burst through the woods within two hundred yards of Iloscoek 
and threatened to reach the entrance of the swamp before he 
could. Luckily, Hescock, with great sagacity and with a know- 
ledge of the full confidence reposed in him by General Palmer, 
had already sent his caissons and rifled guns to the rear, and now 
determined to give the enemy one more blow. He immediately 
double-shotted his howitzers with canister, and fired into the 
advancing columns, producing terrible slaughter, and then left 
the field. General Palmer, having remained at this point until he 
was assured of the safety of Hescock, rode to the rear to pre- 
pare to dispute the crossing of the swamp. Loomis's brigade 
had become engaged on the right, and, after a severe fight, were 
ordered to fall back. The 51st Illinois and 8th Wisconsin were 
formed behind the bridge, and the 42d and 47th Illinois were 
formed in the edge of the woods, on both sides of the road 
where it entered the swamp. 

This arrangement was concealed from the enemy by the 
undulations of the ground; and their forces, disordered by the 
impression of a victory, now came on in a confused mass, 
whooping like Indians. General Palmer had sent his horse to 
the rear to assist in the concealment of the troops, and, standing 
behind his line, waited until the foremost of the rebels had 
approached within fifty yards, when he gave the order to fire. 
One volley covered the open ground to the front with killed and 
wounded, and the remainder broke and fled from the field. 

This ended the struggle ; and thus did this small force, aided 
by the favorable ground and the concealment aff'orded by the 
woods, after a closely-contested fight of several hours, escape 
from three rebel divisions. It ought to be stated, in addition, 
that the escape of Hescock was greatly aided by a charge upon 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MC ALLEY PALMER. 129 

the rebels on our right, made by the 2d Iowa Cavalry and ordei-ed 
by General Paine, which checked the enemy for a moment. 
Our loss was twenty-two killed, one hundred and fifty-one 
wounded, and ten taken prisoners. The rebel loss was four 
hundred and eleven killed and wounded, among whom was 
Colonel Ingraham, of Van Dorn's staff. 

After this affair our troops remained in camp until the ITtti 
of May, when they advanced and took possession of Farmingtori. 
On the 18th, General Palmer, in command of the oiitposts, spent 
the day on the lines, and skirmished with the enemy, driving 
them back so as to gain possession of a ridge of hills which it 
was desirable to occupy. Towards sunset he succeeded in this, 
and returned to his quarters, but before midnight was attacked 
with pneumonia, and was confined to his bed until the morning 
of the 29th. On that day, under the impression that there would 
be a great battle, he went out upon the lines. While there, news 
came that Corinth was evacuated, and, still being very ill, he was 
ordered home by General Pope. He continued sick at home until 
about the 1st of August, when he took part in the efforts made to 
raise troops, and, under the authority of the Governor of Illi- 
nois, organized the 122d Illinois Eegiment at Carlinville. On 
the 26th of August he left home, and on the 1st of September 
reached Tuscumbia, Alabama, when, General Paine being in ill 
health, he was assigned by General Eosecrans to the command 
of the 1st Division of the Army of the Mississippi, and ordered 
to join General Buell. 

The 2d Brigade, being then at Tuscumbia, crossed the river 
near that place, and marched directly to Athens. The 1st Brigade 
was scattered along the railroad from Tuscumbia to Decatur. 
This force was concentrated at Decatur, and, under the command 
of General Palmer, crossed the river on the 5th, and reached 
Athens on the 6th of September. 

There the first information was received of Buell's move- 
ments. A courier from him to General Paine, who was supposed 
to be in command of the column, was captured by some "peace- 
able citizens," who destroyed his despatches, and then exultingly 



130 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

told the contents, wbieh were orders to make forced marches to 
Nashville. A Union man gave information of this; and on the 
morning of the 7th the march was commenced. At this time 
the whole of Southern Tennessee north and east of the Tennessee 
Eiver was abandoned by the Federal troops. The inhabitants, 
under the belief that the rebel authority was permanently 
established, were intensely malignant. Those who until that 
time had been faithful to our Government were disheartened; 
while the guerrillas were active in all directions. It being im- 
possible, on account of the want of cavalry, to ascertain the 
movements of the large and active mounted force of the enemy, 
great vigilance was required to insure the safety of the long train 
which accompanied the march. The first appearance of the 
rebels was at Blowing Springs Gap. A party of bushwhackers 
bere fell in behind our skirmishers, fii-ing upon the column, and 
wounding three. The muskets of the 16th Illinois soon dispersed 
them. At night, from the camp at Buchanan's Creek, Colonel 
Roberts with two regiments w\is pushed forward to Pulaski, to 
surprise Biffles, who, with his cavalry, w^as in possession of the town. 
He heard of our movements in time to make his escape; but 
the party captured a mail, and, visiting his camp, secured the 
handsome donations sent in the morning by his friends in the 
shape of good cooked breakfasts. 

On the morning of the 8th, in passing through Pulaski, a 
guard was detailed to protect the town, with orders to move up 
with the stragglers. When the rear of the column had passed out 
■of the town, the people ordered this guard to surrender as prisoners. 
A few shots were exchanged, and the guard retired. At Rey- 
nolds's Station the train was attacked, and two unarmed, sick men, 
who had stepped aside to a spring, were murdered. The skir- 
imish lasted for an hour, and ended in the repulse of the rebels. 
On the next day the train and rear-guard were again attacked. 
This skirmish lasted several hours, but upon reaching Columbia 
the rear-guard halted and drove the enemy oif. On leaving 
the north bank of Duck River, at about five o'clock on the 
jnorning of the 10th, the rear-guard was again attacked; but a 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MCaULEY PALMER. 131 

howitzer turned upon the enemy soon dispersed them with loss. 
At Eutherford Centre another attack was made. Here the 
Union force was greatly strengthened hy a cavalry reinforce- 
ment, raised in a rather amusing way. As there was no 
cavalry force with the expedition, an order had been issued for 
all spai-e horses along the line to be mounted by active men, who 
were to act as scouts. By the time this order had reached the 
second regiment, it had assumed the foi'm of a direction to the 
men to seize all the horses and mules to be found, for the purpose 
of mounting the infantry. On reaching Spring Ilill, the general, 
much to his own surpi-ise, found himself accompanied by a hun- 
dred mounted men, riding on all sorts of animals. Two were 
mounted on splendid jacks, which, to the great disgust of the 
riders, he ordered to be returned at once. At least fifty persons 
came into camp that night in seaz'ch of horses and mules, all 
of which were returned, — *' foolishly," as the general now says j 
for in «ia week afterwards they were in the hands of guerrillas. 
After the attack at Eutherford Centre the rebels made no further 
demonsti-ation ; and on the 11th of September General Palmer 
and his force arrived at Nashville. 

During the so-called blockade of Nashville by the rebel forces 
of Wheeler, Morgan, and other commanders, for a period of 
several weeks, Generals Negley's and Palmer's forces were the 
occupants and defenders of that city. Several skirmishes oc- 
curred, and expeditions were undertaken, with generally favor- 
able issues, as is fully narrated in the sketch of Major-General 
Negley given on preceding pages. The intercourse and co- 
operation of these two generals were at all times most friendly 
and hearty, with results beneficial to the cause and the coun- 
try. The daily rebel threat of crushing the Union troops 
at Nashville was not fulfilled, and this strong kej^-point of 
Middle Tennessee was securely held. An onward movement 
and disaster to the rebellion followed in the last days of Decem- 
ber, 1862, by which the rebels were destined to finally lose their 
hold upon the last — and to them the greatest and the best^-o^ 
all the border States. 



132 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

In the awful scenes of »Stone Eiver General Palmer acted 
a conspicuous part. His division at times occupied important 
and perilous positions. During the eventful 31st of December 
he held the advance for several hours after the falling back of 
portions of the right wing. At one period, when thus occupying 
an extreme point, the rebel musketry and artillery fire being 
directed upon his division from all sides, it seemed, we have heard 
him remark, as though his devoted command had become 
isolated and was forgotten. But he appreciated the importance 
of holding the position, and his batteries played with such vigor, 
and were supported by his infantry with such determination, 
that they receded not an inch from their position, but held the 
advancing hosts at bay whenever they approached along that 
line. Their gallantry was ere long recognized by General Eose- 
crans in person : he rode up to their position, with his escort, 
amidst the wildest of the storm, and spoke those words of ap- 
proval and congratulation which are so cheering to the heart of 
every soldier. Thenceforward no rebel force could have driven 
in that battle-line; and, after several vain attempts, the design 
was abandoned, and the rebel advance on that portion of the 
bloody field was stayed. 

For the gallantry and skill displayed by General Palmer upon 
this occasion, in connection with his previous career as a patriot 
and a soldier, he was nominated and confirmed as major-general 
of volunteers, his commission dating from the battles of Stone 
Eiver, — a promotion which his troops, his many personal friends, 
and thousands of patriot hearts throughout the country, and 
particiilarly in the great States of the West, will endorse as well 
and nobly merited. 

As a man, all who meet with Genei-al Palmer find in him an 
ardent, simple, pleasing friend, approachable, intelligent, and 
interesting. As a lawyer, he is one of the most remarkable, 
especially in a plea before a jury, to be found in Illinois or the 
West, — it being his forte to draw tears and smiles from beaming 
eyes and countenances and to wring verdicts from sympathetic 
jurors. As a statesman he has been honest and independent. — 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MCAULEY PALMER. 133 

his independence often leading him quite beyond the precincts 
of mere partyism, and his conscience restraining the wings of 
any sordid ambition, to take eventually higher and nobler 
flights. As a personal friend and a neighbor, the author, who 
has known him well for many years past, could write more 
of well-merited pi'aise than perhaps ought to appear in a life- 
time biography. His thousand charities and kindnesses, his 
noble disregard of self-interest or aggrandizement, his almost 
reprehensible indifference to the acquisition of wealth, or 
even of a competence, his many ardent unrequited efforts for 
some friendless wretch or penniless suitor at the bar of justice, 
— all these, so well known to the people of Central Illinois, need 
not be related here. 

Upon the opening of the rebellion. General Palmer was among 
the first to arm in defence of home and country. A civilian, 
solely, his tastes and habits in entire conformity with the sociali- 
ties of private life, and arrived at that age at which the ex- 
citable ardor of youth has merged into the fulness of manly 
reason, no other incentive than that of exalted patriotism could 
have led him to the tented field. He went there at great 
personal sacrifice, freely and cheerfully accepting the toil and 
the hazard, — went there without passion, without ambition, 
without revenge or resentment rankling in his breast. He saw 
an issue forced upon his country as if by the fiat of Heaven, and 
he calmly entered the arena as but one of the instruments by 
which perhaps that issue was to be determined. 

During his military career in Missouri, General Palmer was 
particularly successful in his dealing with hundreds of half-de- 
cided followers of seccssionism in that State. He was mode- 
rate and forbearing almost beyond measure, when that policy 
was deemed best by the Administration and the majority of the 
people of the country. As the rebellion progressed, and a more 
vigorous and determined policy was adopted, none was more 
justly severe than he in laying the hand of military power upon 
the neck of a rebellious race. 

As a general, the subject of this sketch may be considered 



134 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

neither wildly brilliant nor notably theoretic. He is plain, 
practical, industrious, sound. His men know him to be brave 
from principle, and to be determined and daring as a matter of 
correct judgment. As a general, he belongs to the class of which 
Eosecrans and Thomas are types, — not Napoleonic : this is not 
an age for Napoleons. Forces equal in military intelligence and 
determination and physical development now mingle in conflict. 
War, in the nineteenth century, consists in the marshalling of 
national resources of vast and varied extent and character, 
where the , old-time personal prowess of leadership sinks in the 
comparative scale, and where power, well ordered, upon just and 
correct principles, will accomplish its certain and legitimate 
results. 



TEE STAIP. 



Captain Jacob E. Muhleman, Assistant Adjutant- General, was 
born at Thun, Canton of Berne, in Switzerland, November 24, 
1824. His childhood was passed at the city schools, and in due 
time he received an education fitting him for the profession of a 
civil engineer. In this capacity he passed nearly three years 
in the employment of the government, superintending and assist- 
ing in the construction of public roads. At the beginning of his 
twentieth year, in accordance with the laws of the country, by 
which every able-bodied male citizen becomes a soldier in the 
national army, he was enrolled to serve eight years in the Elite, 
and entered the 6th Battalion Bernese Infantry as a private. In 
1847 he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Sapjiers, 
and participated in the " Sunderbunds Feldzug," or campaign 
against the Separate League. 

In 1848, at the close of this campaign, he emigrated to Illinois. 
and settled, with a brother, upon a small farm near Alton. 
Subsequently he removed to Macoupin county, where he engaged 
in agriculture and other occupations. For nearly two years ho 



CAPTAIN HENRY HOWLAND. 135 

was employed in the law-office of Palmer & Pittman, at Carlin- 
ville, the senior partner of which firm is now Major-General 
Palmer. At the beginning of the rebellion he enlisted, at Jack- 
sonville, in the 14th Illinois Infantry, of which General Palmer 
was then colonel, and was appointed sergeant-major of the regi- 
ment. In September following, he was appointed by General 
Fremont a second lieutenant of sappers and miners, and, until 
the change of commanders of the department, was on duty in St. 
Louis, superintending the erection of a portion of the fortifica- 
tions at that place. General Fremont being relieved, the engi- 
neer corps was dissolved, and Lieutenant Muhleman returned to 
his regiment, then stationed on the banks of the La Mine River, 
near Otterville, Missouri. Here he was tendered the position 
of regimental quartermaster, and, as such, accompanied the regi- 
ment during the year 1862 in its various wanderings through 
Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. On the 23d of December, 
1862, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general, with the rank 
of captain, and on the 31st of the same month was relieved of 
duty in the 14th Illinois, and reported to General Palmer. 

Captain Henry Howland, Assistant QuaHermaster, is a native 
of Conway, Massachusetts, where his parents now reside. In 
October, 1852, he removed to Chicago, Illinois, and for several 
years was extensively engaged in the lumber-trade in that city. 
He was commissioned as quai'termaster of the 51st Illinois In- 
fantry, September 20, 1861, and left Chicago with his regiment 
on the 14th of February, 1862. On the 4th of March the regi- 
ment was ordered to join the Army of the Mississippi, then 
under the command of General Pope; and Quartermaster How- 
land was left at Cairo to attend to the transportation of the 
regiment. Eejoining it at New Madrid, Missouri, on the 13th of 
March, he was the same day detailed by General E. A. Paine, 
commanding the 1st Division, as quartermaster of the division. 
He acted as aide to General Paine in the battle of Farmington, 
May 8 and 9, 1862. On the 9th of June, 1862, he was appointed by 
the President assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain. 



136 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

and remained with the old Ist Division of the Army of the Missis- 
sipj»i until December 10, 1862, when, by order of General Eose- 
crans, he was transferred to the old 4th Division of the Army of 
the Ohio, now the 2d Division of the 21st Army Corps. 

Captain D. Woodman Norton, Division Inspector, was born at 
Chelsea, Massachusetts, January 31, 1837, and lived principally in 
Boston until 1855, when, after graduating at the English High 
School in that city, he removed to the West, passing some time 
in Wisconsin, and finally taking up his residence in Chicago, where 
he was employed as a salesman when the war broke out. April 
18, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Chicago Zouave Regiment, 
and afterwards in the Douglas Brigade (now the 42d Illinois 
Infantry). Upon the organization of the latter regiment he 
was elected and commissioned as captain of Company E. 
He served Avith Generals Fremont and Hunter in their Mis- 
souri campaign against Price in the fall and winter of 1861, 
and was present at the occupation of Columbus, Kentucky, the 
bombardment of Island Ko. 10 and Fort Pillow, the siege and 
approach to Corinth, and the battle of Farmington. He also 
accompanied his regiment during the summer campaign in 
Mississippi and Alabama, and on the march from Alabama to 
Nashville. 

In November, 1862, Captain Norton was selected by General 
Palmer as his division inspector, and as such participated with 
him in the battle of Stone Elver. 

Major S. G. Menzies, Medical Director, was born in Woodford 
county, Kentucky, July 12, 1810, and in 1817 removed with his 
family to Fayette county, and thence, in the following year, to 
the adjoining county of Bourbon, where he began the study of 
medicine. In the spring of 1831 he graduated at the Transyl- 
vania Medical College, and for seventeen years practised medi- 
cine in Bourbon county. In 1848 he removed to Cincinnati, and 
remained there until the rebellion began, when he assisted in 
raising the 1st Kentucky Eegiment of Volunteers, and entered 



LIEUTENANT C. E. HAYES. 137 

the service as its surgeon on the 5th of May, 1861, continuing 
with it until January, 1862, when he was appointed brigade-sur- 
geon of the 22d Brigade. August 18, 1862, he was appointed 
medical director of the 14th Army Corps, — the position which 
he now holds. 

Lieutenant Charles C. Peck, Commissary, was born in the 
town of Barrington, Bristol county, Rhode Island, and prior to 
the rebellion was engaged in business as a jeweller. Upon the 
call of the President for troops, he volunteered as a private in 
the 6th Ohio Regiment, founded upon the Guthrie Grays of 
Cincinnati, and was afterwards promoted to quartermaster-ser- 
geant. In December, 1861, he was appointed first lieutenant 
in Company K of his regiment, and in March, 1862, was 
detailed to act as commissary in the division commanded by 
General l^elson, in which position he served until August, 1862, 
when he was ordered to report to General Buell and act as post 
commissary at Murfreesborough, Tennessee. Upon General 
Buell's departure from the Army of the Ohio, Lieutenant Peck 
joined the staff of Brigadier-General "William S. Smith as com- 
missary for the 4th Division, and upon General Smith's being 
relieved by General Palmer he was retained in the same position 
upon the staff of the latter general. During the battle of Stone 
River he was very efficient in forwarding and supplying rations 
to his own division, besides issuing to other divisions one hundred 
and sixty thousand rations 

Lieutenant C. E. Hayes, Topographical Engineer, is a native 
of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and by profession a civil 
engineer. In May, 1861, he volunteered as a private in the 1st 
Pennsylvania Regiment Volunteer Infantry, and served through 
the three-months campaign. At the close of this campaign he 
. entered the 79th Regiment Pennsylvania Yolunteers, and on 
October 20, 1861, was mustered into the service as first lieu- 
tenant and acting quartermaster at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania 
The regiment being in Brigadier-General Negley's brigade, 



138 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Lieutenant Hayes was second in command of Company K in 
their march to Pulaski, Tennessee, and Eogersville and Florence, 
Alabama, and back to Columbia, Tennessee, in the march under 
the same commander to Chattanooga and to Shelbyville. 

At Bowling Green, Kentucky, he was detailed to act on the 
staff of Brigadier-General William S. Smith. Upon General 
Smith being relieved in December, 1862, by the present com- 
mander. General Palmer, the position of topographical engineer 
was proffered to Lieutenant Hayes and accepted. 

Lieutenant Benjamin F. Croxton, Ordnance Officer, was born 
in Stark county, Ohio, December 15, 1842. At the breaking out 
of the rebellion he was residing at Zanesville, Ohio, and on the 
17th of April, 1861, enlisted as a private in the 15th Volunteer 
Ohio Infantry. Serving through the three-months campaign 
with this regiment, he re-enlisted for three years, October, 1861, 
as a private in the 5l8t Ohio Volunteers, under the command 
of Colonel Stanley Matthews. Soon after he was appointed a 
second lieutenant, and participated with his regiment in the cam- 
paign in Kentucky under General Nelson. He was afterwards 
stationed at Nashville, and served during the summer through 
Middle Tennessee. On the 17th of August, 1862, Lieutenant 
Croxton was appointed ordnance officer upon the staff of General 
Ammen. This position in the division he still retains, having 
acted in the same capacity tipon the staff of General Smith, who 
succeeded General Ammen, and that of General Palmer, the 
present commander. 

Lieutenant Harry M. Scarritt, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Alton, Illinois, December 29, 1842. At the age of fourteen he 
entered an academy at Cornwall, Connecticut, and remained 
there two years, when he entered Illinois College at Jacksonville, 
Illinois. Here he pursued his studies until April, 1861, when, the 
war breaking out, he enlisted as a private in the 2d company of 
the 1st battalion from his State (subsequently Company B of the 
10th Illinois Infantry), and served through the three months of 



LIEUTENANT HARRY M. SCARRITT. 1?.9 

ms enlistment. He then entered the service as first lieutenai.t 
of Company D, 10th Illinois Infantry, a new company partly 
raised by himself In this capacity he followed the fortunes of 
the regiment through Southern Missouri to New Madrid, Island 
No. 10, and Fort Pillow, Pittsburg Landing, Farmington, and 
Corinth, and through the Northern Mississippi and Alabama 
campaign. In February, 1863, he was detailed as aide-de-camp 
upon the staff of General Palmer. 



Pajor-(Sntcral |hilip Icnrg ^luMm and ^ta)|. 

Philip Henry Sheridan, Major-General of Volunteers, and 
Captain and Brevet-Major 13th Infantry TJ.S.A, commanding 3d 
Division, 20th Army Corps, Department of the Cumberland, was 
born in Perry county, Ohio, in 1831. He was appointed a cadet 
at West Point from that county in 1848. Graduating in June, 
1853, he was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the 1st United 
States Infantry in the following July, and joined his company at 
Fort Duncan, Texas, in the fall of the same year. Prom that 
time until the spring of 1855 he was engaged in active field 
duty against the Indians, when he was promoted to a second 
lieutenancy in the 4th Infantry and ordered to join his regiment 
in Oregon. During the months of May and June, 1855, he was 
in command of Fort Wood, in New York harbor, and in July of 
the same year embarked for San Francisco in charge of a body 
of recruits. Arriving there, Lieutenant Sheridan was detailed 
to the command of the escort of Lieutenant Williamson, for a 
survey of the route for a proposed branch of the Pacific Eail- 
road from San Francisco to Columbia Eiver, Oregon. This 
important expedition was accompanied by a large number of 
literary and scientific gentlemen, and resulted in eliciting much 
interesting and valuable information concerning the geograph}^, 
topography, and natural history of the country, which has been 
spread before the people in the reports made by those in charge 
and published by Congress. 

Detached from the escort of Lieutenant Williamson in Sep- 
tember, 1855, at Vancouver, Washington Teri-itory, Lieutenant 
Sheridan was ordered to accompany with a detachment of 
dragoons the expedition of Major Eaine, of the 4tll Infantry, 
to the Yakima country, against the Indian tribe of that name, 

140 







J B LIPPINCOTT & COFHILAJl-^ 



MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 141 

and returned to the Dalles of the Columbia the same fall. Ho 
was specially mentioned in general orders for gallant conduct in 
an engagement with the Indians at the Cascades of the Columbia, 
April 28, 1856. In May following he was ordered to take com- 
mand of the Indian Eeserv5.tion in the Coast Eange of mountains. 
In September, 1856, he was directed to select a post on this 
reservation in the Seletz Yalley. In the spring of 1857 he was 
complimented by the general-in-chief for meritorious conduct 
in the settlement of the difficulty with the Coquillo Indians, on 
Y&kima Bay. In the summer and fall of the same year he built 
the military post at Yamhill, on the Indian Eeservation. 

Promoted to a captaincy in the 13th Infantry, March 14, 1861, 
he was ordered to join his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, Mis- 
souri, in September of the same year. Soon afterwards Captain 
Sheridan was made president of the military commission to 
audit the claims arising from the operations of our army in 
Missouri during the summer of 1861. December 24, 1861, he 
was appointed chief quartermaster and commissary of the Army 
of the Southwest. In this position he organized the transporta- 
tion, and supplied that army with the greater portion of its sub- 
sistence from the surrounding country, until after the battle of 
Pea Eidge. In March, 1862, he was ordered to St. Louis, and 
thence. in the latter part of April, to report at the head-quarters 
of General Halleck in front of Corinth, Mississippi. Upon his 
arrival at that place, he was appointed chief quartermaster and 
commissary on the staff of General Halleck, about the 10th of 
May, 1862. 

His superior officers soon discovered, however, that his proper 
place was at the head of a regiment in the field; and on the 27th 
of May he was appointed colonel of the 2d Michigan Cavalry, 
and was ordered with his regiment to accompany the command of 
Colonel Elliott in his^famous expedition to destroy the Mobile & 
Ohio Eailroad at Booneville, Mississippi, about thirty miles south 
of Corinth. After making a circuit of about one hxindred miles 
to the rear of the enemy, then concentrated at Corinth, the 
expedition burned the railroad-bridge at Booneville, captured 



142 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

and destroyed a large train and a great quantity of muskets and 
side-arms, and paroled two thousand prisoners. On the morn- 
ing of May 30 he repulsed an attack of the enemy's cavalry under 
Colonel McNairy, scattering them in every direction. 

Upon his return to Corinth, he* was ordered to join the 
army near Booneville in its pursuit of the forces of Beauregard 
after their evacuation of Corinth. Accompanying the cavalry 
reconnoissance of Colonel Elliott to Blackland, he encountered 
the left wing of the enemy's forces at that place. Being in the 
advance with the 2d Michigan Cavalry, he repulsed an atta<;k 
made by two regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, 
and a battery of artillery, and, bringing off Powell's battery, fell 
back on our main force near Booneville. Dui-ing a reconnoissance 
with his regiment on the 6th of June, he encountered a force of 
rebel cavalry under Forrest at Donelson's Cross-Eoads, between 
Booneville and Baldwin, and signally defeated them. On the 8th 
of June, with the 2d Michigan and 2d Iowa Cavalry, he pursued 
the enemy, who wei-e evacuating their position on Twenty-Mile 
Creek and falling back to Tupelo, captured the town of Baldwin, 
and drove the retreating rebels to Guntown, where they were" 
forced to form in line of battle, with infantry, cavalry, and artil- ] 
lery. Thence he was ordered back to Booneville and with the 
army to Corinth. 

On the 11th of June Colonel Slieridan assumed command of 
the 2d Brigade of the Cavalry Division of the Army of the 
Mississippi, composed of the 2d Iowa and 2d Michigan Cavalry 
EegimentB, and on the 2Gth was ordered to take a position with 
his brigade at Booneville, twenty miles in advance of the main 
ai-my, and cover the front. While at this place, he was attacked 
on the 1st of July by nine regiments of rebel cavalry, under 
General Chalmers, numbering between five thousand and six 
thousand men. After considerable skirmishing, he fell back 
towards his camp, which was situated on the edge of a swamp, 
— an advantageous position, in which he could hold the enemy at 
bay, in front, for some time. Finding that he was about to be 
surrounded, he selected ninety of his best men, armed with 

i 



MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 143 

revolving carbines and sabres, and sent them around four miles 
to attack the enemy's rear at a given time, while he would 
make a simultaneous charge in front. This plan worked ad- 
mirably. The ninety men appeared suddenly in the re*ar, not 
having been seen until near enough to fire their carbines, and, 
having emptied these, charged with drawn sabres upon the 
astonished rebels, who supj^osed them to be the advance-guard 
of a large force, not dreaming that so small a body would 
have the audacity to throw themselves upon an opposing 
body of six thousand, without the promise of speedy reinforce- 
ments. Before the enemy had recovered from the confusion 
caused by this attack in the rear, they were fiercely charged in 
front by Colonel Sheridan and his remaining handful of men, and, 
utterly routed, fled in wild disorder from the field. So panic- 
stricken were they, and so hasty was the flight, which ended only 
at Knight's Mills, some twenty miles south of Booneville, that 
the road over which they ran was literally strewn with arms, 
knapsacks, coats, and ai'ticles of every description. This battle, 
in which two small regiments of cavaliy defeated nearly six 
thousand of the enemy, won for Colonel Sheridan his first star, 
— his commission as a brigadier-general dating fi*om the day 
upon which it was so gallantly fought. 

Twenty-Mile Creek was at this time the only place where 
water could be obtained by the rebels for their stock ; and Gene- 
ral Sheridan while stationed at Booneville frequently took ad- 
vantage of this circumstance, making sudden exj)editions in that 
direction and capturing at various times large quantities of stock. 
On one occasion, with the 2d Michigan, 2d Iowa, and 7th Kansas 
Cavalry Eegiments, two companies of the 3Gth Illinois In- 
fantry, and Hescock's Battery, he made a dash upon the enemy 
and succeeded in capturing and bringing away three hundred 
head of cattle. In August he was attacked by Colonel Faulk- 
ner's cavalry, near Eienzi, Mississippi, whom he defeated and 
followed to within a few miles of Ripley, dispersing the whole 
force and capturing a large number of prisoners and arms. He 
remained with his brigade in that vicinity until September 7, 



144 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND. 

when he and his old regiment, the 2d Michigan Cavalry, were 
ordered to join the army in Kentucky, via the Mississippi and 
Ohio Rivers. 

Arriving at Louisville, he was assigned to, and on the 20th of 
September assumed, the command of the 3d Division of the 
Army of the Ohio, consisting of ten regiments of infantry, one of 
cavalry, and two batteries of artillery. With this division he con- 
structed, in the short period of a single night, the whole series 
of rifle-pits from the railroad-depot in Louisville around to the 
vicinity of Portland. On the 1st of October he took command 
of the 11th Division of the Army of the Ohio, and accompanied 
General Buell in his advance against Bragg. In front of Perry- 
ville, on the 8th of October, he was ordered to take position on 
the heights to the east of Doctor's Creek, for the purpose of 
securing the water for our men and animals. Gaining the 
heights (Chaplin Hills) early in the morning, with two regi- 
ments he repulsed an attack of a rebel brigade under General 
Leydell. At tsvo o'clock the same day he was attacked by 
the enemy in strong force under command of General Hardee, 
w^ho was handsomely repulsed. Soon afterwards he was again 
attacked, and a second time repulsed his assailants, driving them 
fi'om the open ground on his front. The heights held by Gene- 
ral Sheridan formed the key to the whole position : hence the 
desperate energy with which the enemy sought to drive him 
from them. After his second repulse of the rebels, some advan- 
tage having been gained by them upon our left. General Sheridan 
directed his artillery-fii'e upon them, and drove them from the 
open ground to which they had advanced. For a time the con- 
test raged furiously at this point. The enemy came charging 
up with fixed bayonets, determined to take the position, but 
were driven back in disorder by the murderous fire which opened 
upon them, leaving the ground in front of the batteries covered 
with their dead and wounded. In this short but severe engage- 
ment the loss of General Sheridan's force was over four hundred 
in killed and w^ounded, and but for the sheltered position which 
he occupied it would have been much greater. 



MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 145 

After the battle of Periyville, General Sheridan accompanied 
the army through Kentucky, until, early in November, he reached 
Nashville in command of a division of the Army of the Cum- 
berland. Upon the advance to Murfreesborough on the morn- 
ing of December 26, he had command of one of Major-General 
McCook's three divisions. Through the several days' skirmishing 
and fighting which terminated in the flight of Bragg and the 
evacuation of Murfreesborough, he was ever present and active, 
and by the skilful handling of his men contributed not a little to 
the successful issue of the battle of Stone Eiver. For the part 
borne by himself and his division in that conflict, reference must 
be made to another chapter in this work, it being only necessar}- 
to say here that he was highly commended in the report of the 
general commanding, and recommended for promotion to a 
major-generalship. In the whole of that celebrated document, 
from the beginning down to " non nobis," no better compliment 
can be found than the following, paid to General Sheridan by 
one who, of all others, is the most competent judge : — 

" Sheridan, after sustaining four successive attacks, gradually 
swung his right round southeasterly to a northwestern direction. 
repulsing the enemy four times, losing the gallant General Sill 
of his right and Colonel Eoberts of his left brigade, when, 
having exhausted his ammunition, Negley's division being in 
the same predicament and heavily pressed, after desperate fight- 
ing they fell back from the position held at the commencement, 
through the cedar woods, in which Eousseau's division, with a 
portion of Negley's and Sheridan's, met the advancing enemy 
and checked his movements." 

The major-generalship to which he was declared entitled by 
General Rosecrans by reason of his gallant and meritoi-ious 
services was conferred on December 31, and he was confirmed 
in the position by the Senate at its extra session in March 
last. 

To such a record, that of a man but thirty-one years of age, 
no word of commendation need be added by the author. Deeds 
speak with deeper meaning: by them let his life be judged, 

10 



146 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

upon them let his claim to popular favor be based. In per- 
son General Sheridan is rather under the medium size, with 
features strongly indicative of will and energy. Gentle and 
modest almost to a fault in ordinary intercourse, he is a very lion 
in daring when roused by the din of battle or momentarily 
swayed by the fierce passion called forth in imminent strife, and 
dashes into the fray with an ardor and impetuosity which usually 
attains its ends. As yet unmarried, his home is in the camj) and 
field. His courage, kindness, and, above all, his soldierly abili- 
ties, have won for him the love of those whom it has been his 
fortune to command. He knows how to care for his men in the 
camp and how to handle them in the field, — qualities which a 
soldier never fails to appreciate. Very recently the officers of 
his division surprised him with an elegant and fitting testimonial 
of their regard, in the form of a magnificent sword, the blade 
■exquisitely wrought, jewelled hilt, gold-plated scabbard, and 
the sword-belt woven with bullion. The j)resent also comprised 
.a set of silver service, a case of elegant, ivory-handled, silver- 
mounted Colt's pistols, and a general's saddle and bridle of the 
most gorgeous description. The cost of the sword alone was 
one thousand dollars, that of the whole present over two thou- 
sand dollars. Such a tribute from brave and gallant men to 
their commander is a sure index of the esteem in which they 
bold him. 



THE STAPP. 



Captain George Lee, Assistant Adjutant- General, was born in 
Yates county, New York, February 16, 1830, and was commis- 
sioned, by the Governor of Michigan, first lieutenant and adju- 
tant of the 3d Battalion, 2d Michigan Cavalry, September 2, 1861. 
On the 10th of March, 1862, he was appointed acting regimental 
adjutant, at New Madrid, Missouri, by Colonel Gordon Granger 



I 



CAPTAIN A. F. STEVENSON. 147 

(now major-general), then commanding the regiment. June 
20, he was made acting assistant adjutant-general of the 2d 
Brigade of the cavalry division of the Army of the Mississippi, 
Colonel P. H. Sheridan commanding; and on the 11th of March, 
1863, was appointed assistant adjutant-general, with the rank 
of captain, by the President, and assigned to duty with Major- 
General Sheridan. Captain Lee has been engaged in the 
following battles, expeditions, affairs, &c. : — New Madrid, Farm- 
ington, Booneville, Mississippi, May 29 and July 1, 1862, Chaplin 
Hills, and Stone Kiver. 

Captain A. F. Stevenson, Inspector- General^ was born in 1837, 
in the city of Hamburg, Germany, of Scotch-German parents. 
In 1854 he emigrated to America, and for several years cultivated 
a farm near Cambi'idge, Illinois. He then began the study of 
law with Judge Wilkinson, of Eock Island, and about a year 
thereafter was admitted to the bar. He continued in the practice 
of his profession until the beginning of the war, when he enlisted 
a company in Henry county, which, however, was not accepted 
by the Governor, a large surplus of volunteers having already 
offered. Under the second call for troops he enlisted a com- 
pany for the 42d Illinois Eegiment (Douglas Brigade), and 
served as first lieutenant in its Missouri campaign under Fre- 
mont and Hunter. He was afterwards appointed adjutant- 
general to Colonel Eoberts, and remained with him in that 
position until the colonel was killed at the battle of Stone Eiver. 
In the battles of Farmington and Stone Eiver, and in the siege 
of Corinth and the pursuit of the rebels by General Pope after 
its evacuation. Captain Stevenson took an active pai't ; and 
during the investment of the city of Nashville by the rebels, 
and its bombardment on the 5th of November, 1862, he was pre- 
sent with his command, participating in many of the skirmishes 
occurring in that vicinity. Soon after the battle of Stone Eiver 
he was selected by General Sheridan as the inspector-general of 
his division. 



148 ARiMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Captain Francis Mohriiart, Topographical Engineer , was born 
in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, October 23, 1823. In August, 
1847, be came to tbe United States and settled in St. Louis, 
wbere be practised bis profession as civil engineer until tbe war 
broke out. In April, 1861, be entered tbe service in tbe 2d Mis- 
souri Infantry, serving during tbe Fremont campaign in Mis- 
souri, and being present at tbe battle of Pea Ridge. Witb bis 
regiment be joined tbe army of General Halleck before Corintb, 
and afterwards tbe Army of tbe Obio under General Buell. 
Soon after tbe battle of Perryville, in wbicb be was actively 
engaged, be was appointed Topograpbical Engineer on General 
Sberidan's staff, and in tbat capacity participated in tbe battle 
of Stone River. 

Surgeon D. J. Griffith, Medical Director, was born in Lam- 
peter, Soutb Wales, in 1830, and emigrated to tbe United States 
in 1841. Afterwards be began tbe study of medicine at Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, and graduated tbere in 1853. In October, 
1861, be entered tbe army as assistant surgeon of tbe 2d Ken- 
tucky Cavalry. After serving some time in tbis capacity, 
be was promoted to be surgeon of tbe 2d Kentucky Infantry, 
and witb tbat regiment was at Sbilob, wbere be, witb a 
number of otber surgeons, received special mention for effi- 
cient service from tbe general commanding. He was also at 
Corintb, and in Buell's campaign. Two days before tbe battle 
of Perryville be was appointed medical director to General 
Sberidan, and in tbat position Avas actively engaged in tbat 
contest, as be was also, later, at tbe battle of Stone River. 

Captain Henry Hescock, Chief of Artillery, is a native of Vir- 
ginia, and about tbirty-five years of age. He entered tbe United 
States service in 1846, served in tbe regular army as a sergeant 
during tbe Mexican War, was at Yera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Hua- 
mantla, and Puebla, and afterwards in Texas and New Mexico. 
In January, 1861, be was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, and 
on tbe ITtb of tbe same montb was ordered, witb a party of 



CAPTAIN HENRY HESCOCK. 149 

forty men of the 4th United States Artillery, to protect the 
United States Sub-Treasury and Post-Office at St. Louis, to 
px-event the seizure by rebel citizens of the funds deposited 
there. In the latter part of Januaiy he was stationed at 
the arsenal in St. Louis, and remained there until April 22, 
assisting General Lyon and Colonel Blair in the organization 
of the five regiments of volunteers enlisted in St. Louis. Hav- 
ing been appointed adjutant of the 1st Missouri Infantry, he 
participated in the actions of Booneville, Missouri, June 17, 
Dug Springs, Missouri, August 3, and Wilson's Creek, August 
10, 1861, and returned to St. Louis in September with his regi- 
ment, which was then changed to a regiment of light artiller}'. 
Resigning as adjutant and joining Battery A, he marched from 
JeflPerson Barracks, October 18, and participated in the battle 
of Frederickstown, Missouri, October 21. He was appointed 
assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Brigadier-General 
Schofield, November 21, in the Missouri State Militia, which posi- 
tion he held until February 25, 18G2, when he was made captain 
of Battery G, 1st Missouri Light Artillery, and went with 
General Pope's army to New Madrid, sharing actively in the 
operations before that place until its evacuation, March 13. He 
was afterwards with General Palmer's brigade at Eiddle's Point, 
in charge of a heavy battery, until the capture of Island No. 
10. Accompanying General Pope to Hamburg Landing with 
his light battery, he took part in all the operations before 
Corinth, Mississippi, particularly the battle of Farmington, 
May 9. 

July 4, 1862, the battery was attached to Colonel Sheridan's 
cavalry brigade. He left Mississippi, September 7, 1862, and 
arrived in Cincinnati, September 12, thence going to Louisville, 
whence he marched with General Sheridan's division, October 
1, 1862, participating in the battle of Chaplin Hills, October 8. 
He afterwards went to Tennessee with General Rosecrans, and 
took part, with his battery, in the battle of Stone River. He was 
appointed chief of artilleiy on the staff of General Sheridan. 
September 30, 1862. Captain Hescock has seen at least as 



150 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

much of active and dangerous service as " any other man" now 
in the army. 

Lieutenant Arad J. Douglass, Ordnance Officer, entered the 
service, July 6, 1846, in the Mounted Eifles United States Army, 
and served through the Mexican War as quartermaster sergeant. 
After his return to the United States at th*) close of the war 
he resided on his farm at Gambier, Knox county, Ohio, until 
September 19, 1862, when he was commissioned as a first lieu- 
tenant in the 71st Ohio Volunteers, and assigned for duty to 
General Sheridan as ordnance officer. Lieutenant Douglass has 
been in the following battles : — taking of Vera Cruz, Cerro 
Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Eey, Castle of Cha- 
pultepec, and the City of Mexico, and, in the present war, of 
Perryville and Stone Eiver. 

Lieutenant E. M. Denning, Aide-de-Camp, was born in Prince- 
ton, Bureau county, Illinois, May 23, 1839. He entered the 
service at Morris, Illinois, August 1, 1861, as second lieutenant 
in the 36th Illinois Infantry, and served through Sigel's cam- 
paign in Southwestern Missouri. Previous to the battle of 
Pea Eidge, Ai'kansas, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Colonel 
Greaut, commanding a brigade in Sigel's 1st Division. His 
command at Covington, Kentucky, was attached to General 
Sheridan's division. Lieutenant Denning acted as adjutant- 
general of his brigade until October 8, the day of the battle 
of Perryville, when he was appointed aide-de-camp to General 
Sheridan. At Nashville, in November, 1862, he was promoted 
first lieutenant, and actively participated in the battle of 
Stone Eiver. 

Lieutenant Prank H. Allen, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Craftsbury, Orleans county, Vermont, and went to Illinois in 
1858. He enlisted in the 22d Illinois Infantry at Alton, and 
was mustered into service upon the formation of the regiment, 
May. 11, 1861. He was promoted to the second lieutenancy of 



LIEUTENANT FRANK H. ALLEN. 151 

Company B of the regiment on the 11th of February, 1862, and 
on the 13th of June following was made first • lieutenant of the 
same company. In September, 1862, he was detailed as aide-de- 
camp to Colonel Geo. W. Eoberts, commanding a brigade of the 
Army of the Mississippi, and was appointed aide to General 
Sheridan just before the battle of Stone River. Lieutenant 
Allen has borne a part in the following battles and sieges : — 
Belmont, New Madrid, Island No. 10, Tiptonville, Farmington, 
Corinth, and Stone Eiver. 



^riqadicr-d^mrral Jlichard ^^. Jlohnson and ^U 



KicuARB "\V. Johnson, Brigadier-General of Yolunteei-s, and 
Major of the 4th United States Cavalry, was born in Livingston 
county, Kentucky, February 7, 1827. He entered West Point 
Academy July 1, 1844, graduating July 1, 1849, and was ap- 
pointed brevet second lieutenant in the 6th Infantry. On the 
10th of June, 1850, he was promoted to a second lieutenancy in 
the 1st Intantry. On the 30th of October in the same year, 
he was married to Miss Eachel E. Steele, of Pennsylvania. 

Soon atterwards he joined the 1st Infantry, in Texas, and 
served with it until March 3, 1855, and for the last two years 
was adjutant of the regiment. He was appointed by Jefferson 
Davis, then Secretary of AVar, first lieutenant in the 2d (now 
5th) United States Cavalry, commanded by Colonel A. S. Johnston, 
— the rebel General Johnston who was killed at Shiloh. Colonel 
Johnston appointed him regimental quartermaster on his staff, 
in which position he continued until December 1, 1856, when he 
was promoted to a captaincy. Eemaining with his regiment, he 
served during several Indian campaigns, and up to the time of 
the surrender of the United States foi'ces by General Twiggs. 
At\er that surrender he left the country with a portion of his 
command, and arrived in Xew York shortly after the bombard- 
ment of Fort Sumter. 

He now served as captain of cavalry under Generals Patterson 
and Banks, until September, 1861, when he was ordered to Ken- 
tucky as lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Kentucky Volunteer 
Cavalry. On the 11th of October he was appointed a brigadier- 
general, and from October 15, 1861, to March 29, 1862, com- 
manded a brigade in General McCook's division. About this 
time he was taken ill and compelled to leave the field, thus being 

152 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL RICHARD W. JOHNSON. 153 

absent at the battle of Shiloh. On the 13th of April he rejoined 
his command, and was present at the advance upon Corinth. 
On the 28th of May he was sent to the front with his brigade, 
and became engaged with a large force of the rebel infantry, 
which he routed, having killed fifty-three and wounded seventy- 
one of them. After the evacuation of Corinth he marched with 
Buell's army through Northern Alabama to Battle Creek, Ten- 
nessee, where he was detached from his brigade and placed in 
command of eight hundred cavalry and sent in pursuit of the 
rebel General Morgan, who was making a raid upon the Louis- 
ville & Nashville Eailroad and had succeeded in cutting off com- 
munication between Nashville and the North. On the 22d of 
August General Johnson vigorously attacked him near Gallatin, 
Tennessee. Morgan's forces were largely superior in numbers, 
and, Johnson being surrounded, and having lost about one 
hundred killed and wounded, about one-half of his command — 
himself among the number — were taken prisoners. He made a 
desperate fight; and the enemy's loss is known to have been 
very severe. 

General Johnson was paroled and subsequently exchanged. 
On the 10th of December, 1862, he was assigned to the com- 
mand of the 2d Division of the right wing of the Army of the 
Cumberland, and served with it through the battle of Stone 
Kiver. In that engagement two of his brigades were on the 
extreme right, and one was guarding a train. The enemy falling 
heavily upon our right, these brigades were forced back after a 
sharp contest, leaving Edgerton's and part of Goodspeed's 
batteries in the hands of the rebels. The reserve brigade also, 
advancing from its bivouac near Wilkerson's Pike towards the 
right, made a gallant but ineifectual stand against the entire 
rebel left. The heavy loss of the division and the punishment 
it inflicted upon the enemy prove that it did good service, 
though forced to give way before superior numbers. No blame is 
attached to its leader for the reverse of that day. His courage, 
gallantry, and skill are unquestioned, and the great loss of 



154 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

life in his ranks upon the battle-field of Stone Eiver truly 
attests the bravery of his men. 

General Johnson's division is now known as the 2d Division 
of the 20th Army Corps. ♦ 



THE STAFF. 



Captain Temple Clark, Assistant Adjutant-General, is a son 
of the late Major Satterlee Clark, United States Army, and was 
born in Utiea, New York, October 23, 1826. When twelve years 
of age, he emigrated to Wisconsin, and resided at Fort Winne- 
bago until 1843. Eemoving to St. Louis in the spring of 1846, he 
there joined the 2d Illinois Volunteers, under Colonel Bissell, and 
participated with the army of General Wool in the long march 
through Texas and Mexico and the severe battle of Buena 
Yista, returning to Wisconsin in 1847. On the breaking out 
of the rebellion, he was a lawyer, and had been in public life as 
a Democrat. He immediately raised a company in Manitowoc 
county, and in April, 1861, was assigned to the 5th Regiment of 
Wisconsin Volunteers as senior captain. He served on the 
Potomac in the army of General McClellan, was in the battle 
of Lewinsville and several skirmishes, and accompanied that 
army to the Peninsula. He left it early in April, 1862, to 
accept the position of assistant adjutant-general upon the staff 
of Brigadier-General Plummer, commanding a division under 
General Pope. Joining General Plummer at Tiptonville, he 
was with the Army of the Mississippi in the advance on Co- 
rinth, taking part in the engagements of Parmington, May 9, 
and of Corinth, May 28. 

On the death of General Plummer, in August, 1862, Cap- 
tain Clark was assigned by General Eosecrans to duty on his 
staff as assistant adjutant-general. As such he was actively 
engaged at the battles of luka and Corinth, and on the latter 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM E. MCLELAND. 155 

occasion received three wounds, one being a gunshot- wound 
through the lungs and reported as mortal. For meritorious con 
duct at luka and Corinth he was especially mentioned in gene- 
ral orders by the commanding general. January 3, 1863, he 
joined the Army of the Cumberland, and was temporarily 
assigned to duty with General Johnson as assistant adjutant- 
general. 

Captain Theodore C. Bowles, Quartermaster, is a native of 
Ohio, and a lawyer by profession, but at the opening of the 
rebellion was engaged in commercial pursuits at the capital of 
his native State. He entered the service in August, 1861, as 
regimental quartermaster of the 15th Ohio Infantry, and in 
October following w^as, at the request of General Johnson, 
nominated by Colonel Thomas Swords, assistant quartermaster- 
general, as assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, — 
in which position he was confii*med by the Senate at its session 
in the spring of 1862. Since October, 1861, he has been on duty 
wuth General Johnson's command, and accompanied it in the 
noted Buell campaign through Kentucky, Tennessee, Northern 
Mississippi, and Alabama. 

Captain William E. McLeland, Commissary of Subsistence, 
was born in Clark county, Kentucky, September 21, 1814, but 
was raised in Jefferson county, Indiana, as a farmer. At the 
age of seventeen he entered a dry-goods store as clerk, and 
was engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1858, when he was 
elected sheriff of Jefferson county. This office he held until the 
4th of July, 1861, when he entered the service. On the 26th of 
August following, he w^as appointed by Governor Morton first 
lieutenant and quartermaster of the 6th Eegiment Indiana 
Volunteers, which office he filled until August 17, 1862, when 
he was detailed as acting commissary of subsistence in the 4th 
Brigade of the 2d Division of the Army of the Ohio, on the 
Btaff of Brigadier-General Sill. 

On the 19th of February, 1863, he was appointed and com- 



156 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

missioned by the President as captain and commissary of sub- 
sistence, and assigned to duty on the staff of General Johnson. 
Since the army first entered Kentucky, on the 20th of September, 
1861, he has accompanied it in all its movements, participating 
in the battles of Shiloh and Stone Eiver. 

Captain J. E. Bartlett, Division Inspector, was born in Seneca 
county, Ohio, July 16, 1830. In 1853 he was admitted to the 
bar, and continued the practice of the law at Fremont, Ohio, 
until July, 1861, when he organized a company for the 49th 
Ohio Eegiment and was chosen its captain. He was in com- 
mand of his company during the second day's battle at Shiloh, 
and was among the first to enter Corinth after its evacuation 
by the enemy. He also participated in the many marches and 
skirmishes in which his regiment was engaged through North- 
ern Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. On the 15th of No- 
vember, 1862, he was appointed assistant inspector-general of 
the 2d Division, 20th Army Corps, and during the battle of 
Stone Eiver acted as assistant adjutant-general upon the staff 
of General Johnson, commanding the division. 

Major Luther D. Waterman, Medical Director, was born at 
Wheeling, Virginia, November 21, 1830. He was educated at 
the High School in Zanesville, Ohio, and the Miami University 
at Oxford, Ohio. In 1853 he obtained his degree as a doctor of 
medicine from the Ohio Medical College, and for nearly three 
years practised his profession at Cincinnati. During the next 
two years he travelled in the West. He subsequently resided at 
Kokomo, Indiana, and on the 7th of September, 1861, was ap- 
pointed by Governor Morton surgeon of the 59th Indiana 
Volunteers. He was present at the battle of Shiloh and the 
skirmishes at Eowlett's Station and Eidge Creek. For two 
months he was stationed at the general field hospital before Co- 
rinth, and was afterwards in charge of General Hospital No. 1, 
at Huntsville, Alabama. Dr. Waterman organized, and foi six 
months had charge of, the Ofiicers' Hospital at Nashville, and on 



LIEUTENANT JOHN J. KESSLER. 157 

the 16th of March, 1863, was assigned to duty on the staft of 
General Johnson as medical director of the 2d Division of the 
20th Army Corps. 

Captain Adolph G-. Metzner, Engineer Officer, was born in 
Grand Baden, Germany, August 16, 1834, and arrived in New 
York December 7, 1856. August 24, 1861, he entered the service 
at Indianapolis as second lieutenant of Company A, 32d Indiana 
Volunteers, under the command of Colonel (now General) Willich. 
"With his regiment he has served through the entire campaign, 
beginning with the skirmish at Munfordsville on the 17th of 
December, 1861, and ending with the battle of Stone Eiver. On 
the 14th of February, 1863, he was promoted to the captaincy 
of Company K, and on the 17th of March was detailed as topo- 
graphical engineer of the 2d Division of the 20th Army Corps. 

Lieutenant John J. Kessler, Aide-de-Camp and Provost- 
Marshal, was born near Easton, Northampton county, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1834. Entering the service at Fremont, Sandusky 
county, Ohio, as first sergeant of Company F, 49th Ohio Yolun- 
teers, he was promoted to the second lieutenancy, February 9, 
1862, and on the 7th of April following to the first lieutenancy. 
At the battle of Stone Eiver he was in command of his company, 
and on the 15th of March, 1863, was detailed as provost-marshal 
upon the staff of General Johnson. 



^ric)adicr-(icttcral Jefferson dj. Sams and ^taff. 

Jefferson C. Davis, Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and 
Captain in the 1st Regular Artillery, now commanding the 
1st Division of the 20th Arm}' Corps, was born in Clarke county, 
Indiana, March 2, 1828. His ancestors were notable men in 
early days in the West. His father was born and raised in 
Kentucky. His mother was born in Indiana, and is now sixty- 
two years of age, and is, probably, one of the oldest living 
natives of that State. His grandfather, William Davis, was an 
old Indian-fighter, who was an actor in numberless encounters 
and battles, among the more important of which was that of 
Eiver Eaisin. On his mother's side, his grandfather James 
Drummond was one of the earliest settlers of Kentuckj^, at the 
Falls of the Ohio. Several of his uncles were also active in the 
early settlement of that country, and participants in the battle 
of Tippecanoe and other Indian fights. 

In 1841, young Davis, who was an apt scholar, entered the 
Clarke County Seminary, at that time one of the most prominent 
in the State. Here he remained four years, obtaining what was 
then esteemed in the West a liberal education, and was still 
attending school there in 1845, when the Mexican War broke 
out. The thrilling news from Palo xVlto and Resaca de la Palma 
flushed thousands of hearts with excitement, and among them 
that of young Davis, now seventeen years of age. Love of 
study was succeeded by a new and more absorbing passion, a 
thirst for the romance of camp and soldier life; and one morning 
he threw down his books, and in the afternoon was the fii^st en- 
rolled member of a volunteer company, called " the Clarke 
Guards," raised under the auspices of Captain T. W. Gibson, a 
West Pointer in earlier days, then a prominent lawyer of the 

158 



^^1©.©!^-. ©AVr 







BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 159 

county, and now one of the most notable attorneys in Lbuisville, 
Kentucky, or, indeed, in the "West. The regiment of which it 
was a part was under the command of the now noted James H. 
Lane, of Kansas. The subject of our notice participated in the 
battle of Buena Yista, and in the entire Mexican campaign, 
without losing a day from sickness or other cause. 

For gallant conduct in his regiment he was appointed second 
lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Regular Artillery, to rank 
from June 17, 1848. Receiving his commission near the close 
of the war, Lieutenant Davis reported at Cincinnati for i"ecruit- 
ing service, where he remained until October, obtaining in that 
time many recruits. Peace having been declared, he was 
ordered to join his company, which had just returned from 
Mexico and was then at Baltimore. Among his messmates and 
associates in the regiment were the present rebel generals 
Magruder, (Stonewall) Jackson, Hill, "Winder, and Slaughter, 
and French, Brannan, Schofield, Baird, Vogdes, Anderson, 
Doubleday, and others now holding distinguished positions in 
the Union service. Of the officers of this regiment alone, 
twenty-one have become generals of mark and are now in active 
service. From Baltimore he was ordered to Fort Washington, 
on the Potomac, nine miles below Washington, where two years 
were spent on post duty and in professional study, his researches 
extending to every branch of military science. Much advantage 
was here derived by the young lieutenant from constant asso- 
ciation with officers of skill and experience, whose theoretical 
knowledge had been tested and perfected by the trying scenes 
of the Mexican War. Young and full of life, he mingled much 
during these two years in Washington society, where he ever 
found a ready welcome. In the summer of 1850 his command 
constituted a portion of the escort at the funeral of President 
Taylor. In the fall of the same year it was ordered to New 
Orleans Barracks, then under the command of General Twiggs. 
In the fall of 1851 he was ordered to the Rio Grande to enforce 
the neutrality laws, and while there was engaged in several 
expeditions That section of country was in a greatly disturbed 



160 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

state, in consequence of the j)resence of a band of scheming filli 
busters, the survivors of the Cuban expeditions under the ill- 
fated Lopez. Swarming upon the Eio Grande, many attempts 
were made by them to revolutionize the adjoining country; and 
in some parts of Texas they succeeded to a certain extent. The 
danger becoming somew^hat threatening, President Fillmore 
issued a proclamation warning the participants to cease from 
their illegal acts, and immediately entered upon prompt measures 
to put an end to them. For this purpose troops were sent to 
the Eio Grande, and among them, as we have seen, Lieutenant 
Davis and his command. Lieutenant Davis himself captured 
Colonel Wheat, the most noted of their leaders, and the band 
was eventually defeated and broken up by the Mexicans at 
Camargo, the battle being witnessed by Lieutenant Davis and 
his men from the Texas side of the river. 

February 29, 1852, he was promoted first lieutenant, vice T. J. 
(Stonewall) Jackson, resigned. In the summer of the same 
year he returned to 'New Orleans, and thence went to Pasca- 
goula, where his ranks were fearfully decimated by the yellow 
fever. In the succeeding autumn he was transferred to Florida, 
and took a command on the Caloosahatchee Eiver, on the 
west coast, where he made several reconnoissances against 
the Indians and was engaged in a number of skirmishes with 
them. In June, 1853, after five years' continued service. Lieu- 
tenant Davis obtained his first furlough, and visited his home 
in the "West. Eejoining his command in the fall at Fortress 
Monroe, he there spent two years at close study in the Artil- 
lery School of Practice. Old Point Comfort was at that time 
a favorite summer resort of the wealthy and fashionable; and 
the monotony of garrison-life was enlivened to our lieutenant 
by many pleasant hours passed in this agreeable society. In 
the fall of 1855 he was ordered to join French's Light Bat- 
tery at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, and during his two years' 
sojourn at this place became proficient in light-artillery practice, 
being accounted one of the most skilful officers in that branch of 
the service. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 161 

In the fall of 1857, having completed his detailed course of 
practice, as was then required, he was ordered to a station on 
Indian River, on the east coast of Florida, where he arrived in 
November. The winter and spring were occupied w^th Indian 
scouting expeditions, in which with his command he scoured 
that whole country from the Everglades to the northern bound- 
aiy of the State, — a region some three hundred miles in extent. 
In May, 1858, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty 
then made, the Indians were removed to the West, and in June 
the troops were withdrawn from Florida and Lieutenant Davis 
and his command ordered to Charleston harbor. In August, 
1858, he was placed in command of Fort Sumter with the first 
garrison that occupied it. Here he had charge of a large num- 
ber of native Africans, the cargo of a slaver captured by the 
Dolphin, under command of Lieutenant Maffitt, now of the rebel 
navy. The people of Charleston, always read}- to fan them- 
selves into a blaze, were intensely excited, and threatened to 
take the negroes from his custody by force. The aid of the law 
was called in, and several writs of habeas corpus were served 
upon him. But Lieutenant Davis was firm in refusing to give 
them up; and in this position he was sustained by one of their 
most eminent judges, and by various editors in the State, who 
assumed the ground that negroes were not citizens, and conse- 
quently not entitled to the benefits of the habeas corpus act. 
While the controversy was pending, the yellow and ship fevers 
set in, raging with terrible fatality and carrying off large 
numbers of both garrison and negroes. The surviving blacks 
were sent to Liberia; and thus the difficulty was settled. 

Lieutenant Davis remained nearly three years at Charleston, 
devoting himself to artillery practice, and finally passing a bril- 
liant examination in that branch of the service. In December, 
1860, when South Carolina seceded, by exerting his personal influ- 
ence he contributed much to avert immediate collision between 
the citizens and the military. When Major Anderson cut down the 
flag-staff at Fort Moultrie, spiked the guns, burned the carriages, 

and retired to Fort Sumter, Lieutenant Davis was by his side. 

11 



162 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

During the four and a half months of the weary siege, he looked 
out from the walls of Sumter upon the line of batteries with 
which the rebels were encircling that devoted fortress. On the 
morning of April 12 he was on guard, and was upon the ram- 
parts in the act of relieving the last sentry, when, at four o'clock, 
the first shell of the rebellion came over from Fort Johnson and 
exploded in the air forty feet above his head. It was still the 
gray of early dawn when this messenger of war was hurled against 
that small garrison, the sole representative there of that Govern- 
ment against which South Carolina had arisen in opposition. 
Unconnected with the saddening thoughts to which it gave rise, 
the general describes it to his friends as a magnificent sight. 
But there was little time then for melancholy reflection. The 
■contest was upon them ; and the little garrison of seventy-six 
were pitted against as many hundreds. All know the story of 
that memorable engagement, — how they fought long and well, 
but at length, wellnigh roasted by the flames of their burning 
'quarters, were compelled to yield. During the bombardment. 
Lieutenant Davis commanded one of the batteries on the north- 
west face of the work, and directed his attention principally to 
the famous floating battery, silencing most of its guns and 
making it .a complete wreck. 

"With Major Anderson and the garrison, Lieutenant Davis 
proceeded to New York after the surrender, when he received 
notification of his promotion to a captaincy, and found orders 
detailing him as mustering oflScer for the State of Indiana, with 
his head-quarters at Indianapolis. Here he remained several 
months, engaged in mustering volunteers and discharging quar- 
termaster and commissary duties. His labors were severe and 
•successful, the orgaiiization and equipment of many regiments 
having been furthered by him. The battle of "Wilson's Creek and 
the death of Lyon now occurring, aff'airs in Missouri began to 
look dark, and the necessity for speedy reinforcements under 
competent commanders was proportionately increased. Captain 
Davis, being desirous of active service in the field, was commis- 
sioned colonel of a full regiment, the 22d Indiana, and ordered to 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 163 

Missouri to assist in the defence of St. Louis. Three daj^s after 
the receipt of the order, the regiment and its colonel were in St. 
Louis, and reported to General Fremont. Eemaining there ten 
days, Colonel Davis was ordered to relieve General Grant of the 
command of all the forces between the Osage and Missouri 
Eivers. This territory constituted a district, with head-quarters 
at Jefferson City, and on the 28th of August Colonel Davis 
assumed command. At that time Price and McCuUoch were at 
Springfield; and the new commander at once began to fortify 
the place and to dispose his forces — about fifteen thousand 
in number — with a view to its defence. He personally su- 
perintended the construction of the works, and so strength- 
ened JeflTerson City that the enemy deemed it unadvisable to 
make any attack upon what soon became known as one of the 
best-fortified posts in the West. 

Leaving Jeff'erson City to the right, the rebels advanced 
upon Lexington and captui-ed it. Colonel Davis repaired the 
Pacific Railroad, destroyed by the rebels, rebuilt the La Mine 
bridge, burned by Price, and pushed his forces to Geoi'getOAvn, 
compelling Price to fall back from Lexington to Springfieid, 
want of transportation on the part of our troops alone prevent 
ing his capture. During this period Colonel Davis's troops were 
actively engaged in scouring the country, and many small fights 
occurred, together with some severe ones, such as the desperate 
engagement at Booneville, which was successfully defended 
against largely superior numbers by Major Eppstein, and the 
fights at Lexington and at Arrow Rock. 

Fremont now came up with his whole force, and took the 
field in person, appointing Colonel Davis an acting brigadier- 
general and assigning him to a brigade in General Pope's division. 
The army advanced to Springfield, and Price and McCulloch 
fell back before it to Arkansas. Fremont was at this juncture 
recalled ; Hunter succeeded to the command, and the Federal 
forces fell back to the La Mine. General Pope was now assigned 
to the command of all the forces in Central Missouri, and Colo- 
nel Davis placed in charge of that district with about fiftecL 



164 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

thousand men under his command, whom he was instructed to 
put into winter quarters. The month of November and a por- 
tion of December were spent in building quarters, instituting 
camps of instruction, &e. While thus engaged. Colonel Davis 
was ordered to join his captain's command at Washington; but 
through the influence of General Halleck, who wished him to 
remain, this order was countermanded. 

On the 15th of December, Colonel Davis, in command of a 
brigade under General Pope, started upon the famous Blackwater 
expedition. The Union force — cavalry, infantry, and artillery — 
numbered about four thousand, and was divided into two bri- 
gades, the first under Colonel Davis and the second under Colo- 
nel (now Major-General) Steele, the whole commanded in person 
by General Pope. The object of the movement was to get 
between Price's army on the Osage and the recruits, escorts, 
and supplies on their way south from the Missouri Eiver. On 
the first evening the force encamped fifteen miles west of Se- 
dalia. That the enemy might be deceived as to the destination 
of the expedition, it was given out that "Warsaw was the point 
aimed at, and the troops pursued the road towards that place 
several miles beyond Sedalia. On the 16th General Pope pushed 
forward by a forced march twenty-six miles, and at sunset, with 
his whole force, occupied a position between the direct road from 
Warrensburg and Clinton and the road by Chilhowee, the latter 
being the route usually taken by returning soldiers and recruits. 
Shortly after sunset the advance captured the enemy's pickets 
at Chilhowee, and learned that he was encamped in force (about 
two thousand two hundred) six miles north of that town. After 
resting a couple of hours, General Pope threw forward ten 
companies of cavalry and a section of artillery, under Lieute- 
nant-Colonel Brown (now Brigadier-General), of the 7th Mis- 
souri Cavalry, in pursuit, and followed with his whole force, 
posting the main body between Warrensburg and Eose Hill, to 
support the pursuing column. Lieutenant -Colonel Brown con- 
tinued the pursuit all night of the 16th and all day and part of 
the night of the 17th, his advance-guard occupying Johnstown in 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 165 

the course of the night. The enemy began to scatter as the 
pursuit grew close, disappearing in the bushes and by-paths, 
driving their wagons (common two-horse ones taken from farm- 
houses) into farm-yards distant from the road, and throwing out 
their loads. When the pursuing forces reached Johnstown, the 
enemy, reduced to about five hundred, scattered completely, one 
portion fleeing precipitately towards Butler, and the other 
towards Papinsville. 

The main body of Pope's command now moved slowly towards 
Warrensburg, awaiting the return of Colonel Brown, who pro- 
ceeded from Johnstown to scour the country south of Grand 
River to the neighborhood of Clinton. In these operations, six- 
teen wagons, loaded with tents and supplies, and one hundred 
and fifty prisoners, were captured, and the enemy's force 
thoroughly dispersed. On the morning of the 18th, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Brown rejoined the main body. Knowing that there 
must still be a considerable force to the north. General Pope 
on the 18th moved slowly forward towards "Warrensburg, and 
when near that town the scouts sent out before leaving 
Sedalia reported that a large force was moving from Waverly 
and Arrow Eock, and would encamp that night at the mouth 
of Clear Creek, just south of Milford. General Pope thereupon 
posted the main body of his command between Warrensburg 
and Knob Noster, to close all outlet to the south from those 
two points, and despatched seven companies of cavalry, after- 
wards reinforced by a company of regular cavalry and a section 
of artillery, all under the command of Colonel Davis, to march 
on the town of JVIilford, so as to turn the enemy's left and rear 
and intercept his retreat to the northeast, at the same time 
directing Major Marshall, with Merrill's regiment of horse, to 
march from Warrensburg on Milford, turning the enemy's 
right and rear and forming a junction Avith Colonel Davis. 
The main body occupied a point four miles south, ready to 
advance at a moment's notice, or to intercept the enemy's 
retreat south. 

Colonel Davis marched promptly and vigorously with the 



166 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

forces under his command, and at a late lio\ir in the afternoon 
came upon the enemy encamped in the wooded bottom-land on 
the west side of the Blackwater, opposite the mouth of Clear 
Creek. His j)icket8 were immediately driven in across the 
stream, which was deep, miry, and impassable except by a long 
narrow bridge, occupied by the enemy in force under Colonel 
Magoffin. Colonel Davis bi-ought forward his force and directed 
the bridge to be carried by assault. Two companies of regular 
cavalry, under Lieutenants Gordon and Amory, were designated 
for the service, and were supported by five companies of the 1st 
Iowa Cavalry. Lieutenant Gordon led the charge in person, 
carried the bridge in gallant style, immediately formed his com- 
pany on the opposite side, and was promptly followed by other 
companies. The force of the enemy at the bridge retreated 
precipitately over a narrow open space into the woods, where 
his main body was posted. The two companies of the 4th 
Cavalry advanced, and were received with a volley of small 
arms. They continued to press onward, however; and the 
enemy, finding his retreat to the south and west cut off, and 
that he was in the presence of a large force and at best could 
only prolong the contest a short time, surrendered at discretion. 
The force thus captured consisted of parts of two regiments of 
infantry, and three companies of cavalry, numbering in all 
about nine hundred and fifty men, among whom were Colonels 
Eobinson, Alexander, and Magoffin, Lieutenant-Colonel Eob- 
inson, Major Harris, a somewhat noted Missouri politician, 
and fifty-one commissioned company officers. About five hun- 
dred horses and mules, seventy -three wagons heavily loaded with 
powder, lead, tents, subsistence stores, and supplies of all kinds, 
and one thousand stand of arms, fell into Colonel Davis's hands. 
For his skilful management in this affair Colonel Davis was 
highly complimented by General Pope, and recommended to the 
special notice of General Halleck. 

The prisoners and arms were at once sent to St. Louis, in 
charge of Colonel Davis, and arrived there the day before 
Christmas. Obtaining forty-eight hours' leave of absence, he 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 167 

made a flying trij) to Indianapolis, was there married, returned 
with his wife upon a bridal tour to his camp, and rejoined his 
command at Otterville. Here he was ordered to join General 
Curtis's column moving from Eolla preparatory to an advance 
upon Springfield. The march overland to that place was a 
desperate undertaking, — indeed, was pronounced impossible by 
many military men ; but General Halleck persisted in his order, 
saying that Colonel Davis's skill and energy would carry him 
safely through. Accordingly, it set out. Tents were left be- 
hind, and only such things carried as were indispensable. The 
Osage was very high, and Avas crossed on rafts in the midst 
of a heavy snow-storm. Three days and nights were occupied 
in the passage; and, as they ferried themselves over on the frail 
structures, many a soldier was probably reminded of the crossing 
of the Delaware by Washington, — more famous, but not more 
perilous. 

In ten days from the time of starting he made a junction 
with Curtis at Lebanon, and his command became a part of the 
Army of the Southwest. As Curtis advanced. Price retreated, 
only stopping long enough to engage in a small skirmish with 
the Federal advance, commanded by Colonel Davis. At the 
Missouri line and at Cross Timbers, Arkansas, Price again made a 
stand, but was forced to continue his retreat. Colonel Davis 
now took command of all the cavalry, about eighteen hundred 
in number, and, on the exact line of thirty-six thirty, made a 
dashing charge on the enemy's rear brigade and a battery, 
driving them in confusion. 

The army remained at Camp Halleck until Price, reinforced 
by McCulloch and Van Dorn, came back and gave battle at Pea 
Kidge. In that three-days engagement Colonel Davis's division 
fought, on the 7th of March, the battle of Leetown, one of the 
most sanguinary and decisive contests of the war. This division, 
numbering about three thousand, was opposed to McCulloch's 
command, reported at twelve thousand; and the latter were 
utterly routed, with the loss of Generals McCulloch and Mcin- 
tosh killed and General Herbert taken prisoner. McCulloch 



168 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

was attacked in his own position; and the struggle was short 
and desperate, being decided in little more than thirty minutes. 
The next day Colonel Davis, with his whole division, stormed 
and carried the heights of Elkhorn, capturing five cannon and 
deciding the battle against the rebels. 

After the battle of Pea Ridge, General Curtis began his memor- 
able march through Arkansas, and Colonel Davis accompanied 
him as far as Sulphur Rock, where he received orders from Gene- 
ral Halleck to take his command to Cape Girardeau and thence 
proceed by river to join the army in front of Corinth. Starting 
on the 10th of May, with two brigades, after an exhausting march 
of two hundred and forty miles through a rough and sparsely- 
settled country, he reached Cape Girardeau on the 20th, thus 
averaging twenty-four miles of travel each day. Upon this 
march he received by a courier his commission as a brigadier- 
general, dating from the day of the Blackwater fight. Embark- 
ing on steamers, he reached Pittsburg Landing on the 24th, and 
marched at once to Corinth. There he was assigned to the left 
of Pope's command; and when the evacuation of Corinth took 
place he accompanied Generals Pope and Rosecrans in their' 
pursuit of Beauregard. The pursuit over, the army fell back to 
Clear Creek, General Pope was ordered to Virginia, and General 
Rosecrans assumed command. By him General Davis was 
ordered to Jacinto, and remained there until about the Ist of 
July, when he was ordered to make a reconnoissance to Ripley, 
Mississippi. On this expedition he advanced to within a few 
miles of Holly Springs, when he was directed to return by 
forced marches to his original camp at Jacinto. This he did, 
remaining there until August, when ill health compelled him 
to retire from his command, and, with a twenty-days leave of 
absence, he visited his home in Indiana. 

Soon afterwards Bragg advanced into Kentucky, and General 
Bucll started in pursuit of him. The threatening state of affairs 
induced General Davis — still in ill health — to offer his services t<> 
General Wright to assist in the defence of Louisville. His 
division, which had been placed in charge of General Mitchel 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 169 

and attached to Buell's army, had arrived at Louisville, and he 
again assumed its command. "While in the city, an unfortunate 
personal difficulty occurred between himself and Major-General 
Nelson, which resulted in the death of the latter and led to the 
arrest of General Davis. After a few days' arrest, he was released, 
much to the gratification of the public, and ordered to report at 
Cincinnati for duty, where he was assigned to the temporary 
command of the forces around Newport and Covington. After 
the subsidence of the fear of an attack on Cincinnati, he was 
ordered to take command of his old division, and did so at 
Edgefield, opposite Nashville. At the battle of Stone Eiver this 
division was in the thickest of the fight, holding the centre of 
the right wing. After the attack upon General Johnson's 
division, the enemy fell upon it with crushing weight, and it too 
was forced back, but in comparatively good order. Its com- 
mander was faithful and brave as ever upon that memorable 
occasion ; and that his efi'orts were appreciated is evident from the 
fact that in the official report the commanding general places 
him second on the list of those whom he recommends to be made 
major-generals, or, as he terms it, who " ought to be made 
major-generals in our service." 

General Davis still commands his old division, which has 
marched more than five thousand miles and participated in ten 
battles and fights. As a whole, it has been engaged in five 
general battles — viz., Pea Eidge, Corinth, Perryville, Knob Gap, 
and Stone Eiver — and in almost numberless expeditions and 
reconnoissances. It was the first organized division in the 
West, and still retains its original number and position. Its 
record and the histories of its commanding officers would fill 
a volume, and would constitute a history that would well com- 
pare in thrilling interest with any written upon the wars of 
continental Europe during the Middle Ages. 

This old division, now the 1st of the 20th Army Corps, Army 
01 the Cumberland, stands among the foremost in efficiency and 
popularity. Many of its gallant men sleep in heroes' graves, 
and its history is written in the blood of a wicked rebellion. 



i70 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

All honor to the loved and the lost from its ranks, and a 
country's gratitude to those who remain and are as determined 
as ever to maintain inviolate the integrity of the republic of 
the American fathers ! 



THE STAFF. 



Captain T. "W. Morrison, Assistant Adjutant-General, was born 
in Bloomington and raised in Salem, Indiana, and is twenty-one 
years of age. Ilis father, Hon. John J. Morrison, is a prominent 
citizen of Indiana, noted for his literary attainments, having for 
twenty-five years been Principal of the High School at Salem 
and the State University at Bloomington. In political life he is 
also known, having represented his county in both branches of 
the State Legislature. 

The subject of this sketch enlisted, July 26, 1861, as second 
lieutenant in the 18th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and served 
during the campaign in Missouri, bearing a conspicuous part in 
the battle of Pea Eidge. On the 8th of February, 1862, he was 
appointed aide-de-camp by General Davis. Accompanying the 
general to Corinth, he acted in that capacity there and through 
the campaigns in Northern Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ten- 
nessee, ending with the battle of Stone Eiver. For gallant con- 
duct in this engagement, upon the recommendation of Generals 
Davis and McCook, expressed in the most favorable and com- 
plimentary terms, he was commissioned by the President as 
assistant adjutant-general, February 27, 1863, and assigned to 
the staff of General Davis, with whose command he has been 
intimately connected for nearly two years. 

Captain Asa D. Baker, Commissary^ was born, January 18, 
1828, in Waterloo, New York, where he received a business edu- 
cation. In 1859 he went to California, worked in the mines six 



CAPTAIN HAMILTON W. HALL. 171 

montlis, and then engaged in mercantile business at Sacramentt 
City. In 1851 he returned to his native home, where he re- 
mained until 1855, when he removed to Chicago, Illinois, and 
opened a railroad-furnishing goods and machinery depot. Ho 

! was the first to introduce steam fire-engines into the city of 
Chicago, and sold the first five steamers used by that city. At 

t the breaking out of the rebellion, he closed up his business and 
entered the service of the United States. He was one of the 
prime movers in the organization of the 37th Regiment Illinois 
Volunteers, and was with that regiment in its marches through 
Missouri under General Fremont. 

In December, 1861, he was appointed by General Julius "White 
(commanding the 2d Brigade of General Davis's division) act- 
ing assistant commissary of subsistence, and was with the 
brigade during their march across the Osage Mountains and 
into Arkansas. At the battle of Pea Eidge he acted as aide-de- 
camp to General White, and rendered gallant and important 
service. Having by his close attention to business qualified 
himself, he was recommended, immediately after the battle of 
Pea Eidge, by General Davis, General White, and others, for the 
appointment of commissary of subsistence, and was commissioned 
by the President November 18, 1862, and ordered to report to 
General Davis for duty, which he did on the 18th of January, 
1863, at Murfreesborough, Tennessee. 

Captain Hamilton W. Hall, Division Inspector, was born 
July 17, 1837. At the age of sixteen he settled in the town of 
Urbana, Illinois, where, and at Mattoon, he spent several years 
in business pursuits. In April, 1861, he joined a company for 
military drill and discipline, and was made second lieutenant. 
Dui'ing the summer of 1861, this company was off'ered to the 
Government through the Governor of Illinois, but, owing to the 
fact that a surplus had already been offered, was not accepted. 
About the 1 st of August Lieutenant Hall and many others of 
the company determined to make another effort to get into the 
service; and, accordingly, he enlisted in a company raised by 



172 ARMY OF TUE CUMBERLAND. 

Captain A. L. Taylor, in Charleston, Illinois, and upon its organi- 
f.ation on the 14th of August was chosen second lieutenant. 
The company was mustered into the United States service at 
St. Louis Arsenal, 16th of August, as Company H, 9th Eegiment 
Missouri Volunteers. 

This regiment was composed entirely of Illinois companies 
who had been led to enter into an organization out of their State 
by the difficulty of accej)tance at that time in Illinois regiments. 
Captain J. C. Kelton, assistant adjutant-general, became colo- 
nel, and with him the regiment entered the service at the time 
of Fremont's campaign, accompanying the division of General 
John Pope. Eeturning in November, the regiment spent the 
Avinter of 1861 and 1862 in tents or upon the mai'ch, at La Mine 
Eiver, Syi'acuse, and Sedalia, Missouri, until January 25, when, 
under command of General J. C. Davis, the division marched to 
join General Curtis's expedition, well known in the history of the 
war as the " Campaign of the Southwest." Meantime the regi- 
ment had memorialized the President and secured a transfer to 
its own State, becoming the 59th Illinois. 

After the battle of Pea Pidge, the expedition moved eastward, 
occupying the country south and east as far as Batesville, Ar- 
kansas. Up to that time (May, 1862) the regiment had marched 
over two thousand miles through a wilderness country-, Lieu- 
tenant Hall having been with his company upon every foot of 
the march, in every bivouac, skirmish, or battle. Since then 
he has been assigned to duty as assistant regimental quarter- 
master, assistant adjutant, and assistant commissary sergeant 
of his brigade, occupj'ing the latter position during the cam- 
paign of the Army of the Ohio in Kentucky, and until Janu- 
ary 6, 1863, when he was appointed assistant commissary ser- 
geant of 1st Division, 14th Armj^ Corps. At the time of the 
advance from Nashville he volunteered to act as aide-de-camp 
to Colonel P. Sidney Post, commanding his brigade of General 
Davis's division. In this capacity he was employed during the 
engagement which resulted in the occupation of Xolensvillc on 
the 26th of December, and in the skirmishes of the advance upon 



LIEUTENANT FRANCIS E. REYNOLDS. 173 

the enemy's position on the 30th, and the engagement of the 
Slst at Stone River. 

Upon the 16th of January, 1863, at the request of Company 
F, 59th Illinois, Lieutenant Hall was commissioned as their cap- 
itain; and upon the same day ho was assigned to duty as In- 
jspeetor of the Ist Division, 20th Army Corps, on the staff of 
General Davis. 

Captain Thomas H. Daily, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Charlestown, Clarke county, Indiana, December 4, 1842. He 
enlisted in the 22d Indiana Volunteers on the 6th of July, 1861, 
was propaoted second lieutenant on the 12th of June, 1862, first 
lieutenant on the 21st of Xovember, 1862, and captain on the 
23d of February, 1863. 

Lieutenant Francis E. Eeynolds, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Elmira, Chemung county, Xcw York, May 12, 1836. His family 
removing to Aurora, Kane county, Illinois, May, 1844, he re- 
ceived his education at that place, and was engaged as clerk in 
the post-office for nearly five years previous to the outbreak of 
the rebellion. He enlisted as private, August 2, 1861, in Com- 
pany A, cavalry, attached to the 36th Eegiment Illinois Infantry, 
and was promoted, April 1, 1862, as first lieutenant of Company 

B, cavalry, attached to the same regiment, for meritorious con- 
duct at the battle of Pea Eidge, Arkansas. For about four 
months he had command of the company, dui-ing which time 
it acted as escort for Generals Eosecrans, Gordon Granger, 
Jefferson C. Davis, and Eobert B. Mitchell. On the 6th of Janu- 
ary, 1863, he was appointed aide-de-camp on General Jefferson 

C. Davis's staff, for meritorious conduct during the battle of 
Stone Eiver. 



J^ricjucticr-dScncrnl loratio |l fun ^Um and ^taJJ. 

Horatio P. Van Cleve, Brigadier-General of Yolunteei-s, was 
born in Princeton, New Jersey, November, 1809. In 1827 
he entered the Military Academy at West Point, graduated in 
1831, and served in the 5th United States Infantry till 1836, 
when he resigned his commission and retired to civil life. At 
the commencement of the rebellion he tendered his services to 
his country; and, being at that time a resident of Minnesota, 
the Govei'iior of that State, on the 22d of July, 1861, gave him the 
command of the 2d Ecgiment of Minnesota Yolunteers. He re- 
ported for duty with his regiment to General Sherman, at Louis- 
ville, and in December was assigned to the command of General 
Thomas, then at Lebanon, Kentucky. He commanded the 2d 
Minnesota at the battle of Mill Spring, on the 19th of January, 
1862. After this battle he marched his regiment to Louisville, 
and accompanied General Thomas, by way of Nashville, to Pitts- 
burg Landing. Having been promoted brigadier-general by the 
President on the 21st of March, 1862, on his arrival at Pittsburg 
Landing, General Buell gave him the command of a brigade in 
the division of General T. L. Crittenden, whom he accompanied 
in the campaign before Corinth, through Northern Ahibama, at 
Battle Creek, and from Battle Creek, by way of Nashville, to 
Louisville. At Louisville, on the 1st of October, 1862, he took 
command of the entire division. General Crittenden having 
been assigned to the command of a corps. He joined in the 
pursuit of Bragg's army as far as Wild Cat, Kentucky, at which 
point he turned and marched his division, by way of Somerset 
and Columbia, Kentucky, to Nashville. In the latter part of 
December he marched with General Ivosecrans's arm}- to attack 
Bragg at Murfreesborough, and was engaged, with his division, ut 

174 



..-.'0\ 



^^.©EM.¥A«©|_^^^ 







CAPTAIN E. A. OTIS. 175 

the battle of Stone Eiver on the 31st. Having been disabled by 
a wound on this day, he was compelled to leave the field on the 
1st of January, 1863. Upon his recovery he returned to the 
army and resumed the command of his division. 

In the battles of Mill Spring and Stone Eiver General Yan 
Cleve rendered distinguished service, and won favorable mention 
from his commanding generals for his soldierly management. 
By his men he is beloved and esteemed for his gentle, kindly 
manners and the warm interest he manifests in their affairs. The 
oldest in years of any general in the Army of the Cumberland, 
ho brings to the discharge of his duties, with his experience, the 
same ardor, energy, and patriotism that characterize his 
younger compeers. Courteous and affable in his manners, 
plain and simple in his life, and almost patriarchal in appear- 
ance, he presents a bright example of that patriotism which 
j-ields to the call of duty all that tends to make life comfortable 
and happy in its declining years. 



THE STAPP. 

Captain E. A. Otis, Assistant Adjutant- General, was born in 
Calhoun county, Michigan, on the 2d of August, 1835. He 
commenced the study of law in the summer of 1856 at Kala- 
mazoo, Michigan, graduated at the Poughkeepsie law-school in 
August, 1857, and immediately removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, 
where he commenced the practice of his profession in partner- 
ship with his brother, George L. Otis. He was commissioned 
as a lieutenant in the 2d Eegiment of Minnesota Yolunteers on 
the 19th of August, 1861, and since that time has been constantly 
in active service. 

Upon the arrival of his regiment in Kentucky in the fall of 
1861, he was appointed an aide-de-camp on the staff of Briga- 
dier-General Johnson, then commanding a brigade in General 
McCook's division. He remained with General Johnson durinir 



176 ARMY OF THE CUMBEllLAND. 

the winter of 1861-62, marched Math the command to Nash- 
ville and Pittsburg Landing, participated in the memorable 
battle of Shiloh, and was honorably mentioned by his superior 
officers for gallantry and good conduct. After the battle he 
was j)romotcd to the position of assistant adjutant-general, with 
the rank of captain, on the staff of Brigadier-General Yan Cleve. 
He shared in all the prominent movements of the army of 
the Ohio in the summer and fall of 1862, marched through Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky, and was with his command in the advance 
from Kashville in December. He was engaged in the battle of 
Stone River, where he again received honorable mention from 
his division-general for bravery and good conduct. Captain 
Otis is now assigned as assistant adjutant-general to the 3d 
Division, 21st Army Corps, commanded by Brigadier-General 
Van Cleve. 

Captain Carter B. Harrison, Division Inspector, was born 
at North Bend, Ohio, September 26, 1840. At the outbreak of 
the war he was a student at Miami University. He entered 
the service of the United States on the 18th of April, 1861, as a 
private in a company of students raised at the university, and 
served with his company in Western Virginia until the ex- 
piration of the three-months enlistment. On the 12th of Oc- 
tober, 18G1, he was appointed adjutant of the Slst Eegiment 
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which capacity he served until the 
20th of November, 1862, when he was appointed brigade in- 
spector on the staff of Colonel Stanley Matthews, commanding 
the 3d Brigade of the 3d Division of the 2l8t Army Corps. He 
was present at the battle of Stone Eiver, after whieli he was 
promoted to a captaincy in his regiment. On the 1st of April, 
1863, he was appointed acting assistant inspector-general on the 
staff of General Van Cleve, commanding the 3d Division of the 
2l8t Army Coi*ps. 

Lieutenant Henry M. Williams, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Fort Wayne, Indiana, January 24, 1843. In January, 1862, he left 



LIEUTENANT EDWARD S. SINKS. 177 

the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, and entered the army 
as second lieutenant in the 11th Indiana Battery. October 7, 
1862, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Van 
Cleve, and served in that capacity during the battle of Stone 
Eiver. 

Captain Lucius H. Drury, Chief of Artillery, was born at 
Highgate, Vermont, December 20, 1825. At the commencement 
of the rebellion he was a resident of "Wisconsin, and on the 9th 
of September, 1861, received a commission as captain of the 
3d Battery, Wisconsin Volunteer Artillery. Since October 1, 

1862, he has acted as chief of artillery in General Van Cleve's 
division. 

Major Samuel D. Turnet, Medical Director, was born in 
Columbus, Ohio, December 26, 1826, and entered the service, as 
surgeon of the 13th Ohio Infantry, May 2, 1861. March 21, 

1863, he was appointed Surgeon of Volunteers, United States 
Army, and is now medical director upon the staff of General 
Van Cleve. 

Captain Charles A. Sheafe, Provost- Marshal, was born in 
Somerset county, Maine, September 7, 1832. At the beginning of 
the war he was engaged in the practice of law at Hillsborough, 
Ohio. Desiring to aid in the suppression of the rebellion, he 
was commissioned by the Governor of Ohio as a captain in the 
59th Eegiment of that State, and entered the service January 
26, 1862. Following the fortunes of his regiment, he partici- 
pated in the battles of Shiloh and Stone River, besides numerous 
skirmishes of lesser note. 

Lieutenant Edward S. Sinks, Acting Assistant Quartermaster, 
was born in Bethel, Clermont county, Ohio, January 7, 1836. 
He entered the United States service in the 22d Eegiment 
Ohio Volunteers, April 23, 1861. September 27, 1862, he was 

12 



178 ARMY OF TUE CUMBERLAND. 

appointed second lieutenant in the 59th Ohio Yolunteers, and 
was promoted to first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster, 
August 1, 1862. In this position he continued until March 9, 
1863, when he was detailed as acting assistant quartermaster 
upon the staft' of General Van Cleve. 

Lieutenant Edward Knoble, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Memphis, Tennessee, December 7, 1843. He entered the ser- 
v-ice of the United States, from Kentucky, September 20, 1861, 
as second lieutenant in the 21st Eegiment Kentucky Yolunteer 
Infantry. October 20, 1862, he was commissioned as first lieu- 
tenant by the Governor of Kentucky, and received the appoint- 
ment of acting aide-de-camp on the staff of Colonel Stanley 
Matthews, and as such was present at the battle of Stone Eiver. 
After this he was appointed acting assistant inspector-general 
of the 3d Brigade, and very soon afterwards received the appoint- 
ment of aide-de-camp on the staff of General Yan Cleve. 

Lieutenant H. H. Sheets, Ordnance Officer, was born at 
Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 9th of August, 1840. He en- 
listed in the service of the United States on the 8th of 
August, 1862, was commissioned as first lieutenant in the 79th 
Kegiment Indiana Yolunteers on the 21st of August, 1862, 
and was appointed aide-de-camp on Colonel Samuel Beatty's 
staff, Ist Brigade, 3d Division, 21st Army Corps, on the 22d 
of October, 1862, in which capacity he served up to and 
through the battle of Stone Eiver, when he was appointed 
ordnance ofiicer on General H. P. Yan Cleve's staff. 

Lieutenant T. Forrest Murdoch, Aide-de-Camp, was born in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of April, 1841. He 
enlisted as a private in the " Petite Zouave Guard" on the 18th 
of April, 1861. At the expiration of the three-months ser- 
vice he was commissioned by the Governor of Ohio as second 
lieutenant in the 13th Eegiment Ohio Yolunteer Infantry, and 





LIEUTENANT T. FORREST MURDOCH. 179 

served with his command through the campaigns in "Western, 
Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. After the battle of Shiloh 
he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and on the 6th of 
October, 1862, was detailed as aide-de-camp on the staff of 
General Van Cleve, and in that capacity took part in the 
battle of Stone Elver 



griijadtcr-dicnfml James ft. dflalr PoHon and f laff, 
and the Jioncni ^rligadc. 

Our country is remarkable for the early development of her 
people ; and this feature is well exemplified in the Army of the 
Cumberland. A large j^roportion of our generals, of our subordi- 
nates in command, of our men of responsible j)08ition, and of our 
gallant rank and file, are young men, the flower of the Great 
West. The North and the East have also given to us many of 
their valorous sons. A marked character among the latter is the 
subject of this sketch. 

James St. Clair Morton was born in the year 1829, in the city 
of Philadelphia. His father. Dr. Samuel George Morton, well 
known to science in Europe and in our own country as a natu- 
ralist and ethnologist, was the author of " Crania Americana," 
and other noted works ujion that and kindred subjects. General 
Morton was educated at the United States Military Academy at 
"West Point, and graduated, in 1851, second in a class numbering 
forty -two members. His first military duty was performed at 
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1851-52, as assistant engineer, in 
the completion of Fort Sumter and a variety of harbor improve- 
ments. He was next employed as engineer in the construction 
of Fort Delaware and of other river and harbor improvements 
in Delaware Eiver and Bay. Subsequently he was made as- 
sistant professor of engineering at West Point, which position 
he filled for a period of two years, when he was apj^ointed by 
the TreasuT}' Department engineer and superintendent of the l^ew 
York light-house district. Upon the completion of the ne<'es- 
sary work of that district, he was selected by the Department 
of the Interior .as chief engineer of the Po omac Water-Works, 

180 




CO.PHILAD^ 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES ST. CLAIR MORTON. 181 

and ehtvrged with the duty of superinteuding the finished por- 
tion of the Washington Aqueduct. 

lu l^dO, in pursuance of an act of Congress, General Morton 
was selected by the Navy Department to make an exploration 
of the Chiriqui country, Central America, to test the practica- 
bility of an inter-oceanic railroad-route across the Isthmus at a 
point midway between the present Panama and Nicaragua 
routes. With a i)arty of eight white persons as assistants, and 
a squad of Indians hired as laborers, the expedition set out upon 
its romantic though perilous journey, in the midst of the rainy 
season. The country had never been explored by whites, and 
Ijresented to the small band a continuity of matted jungle, dense 
forest, rapid rivers, and steep precipices. The journey was suc- 
cessfully accomplished, and an available railroad-route found. 
The expedition crossed mountains eight thousand feet in height, 
— the loftiest peaks of which commanded a view of either ocean, 
— and traversed swamps of vast extent, through one of which 
they were eight days in cutting their way. For days they 
subsisted solely upon cocoanuts ; and monkeys, huge alligators, 
boa-constrictors, and the myriads of tropical insect and animal 
life, were their constant attendants and visitors. The sun 
poured its rays upon them vertically, and each person lite- 
rally dwelt in his own shadow. The several months thus occu- 
pied by General Morton and his associates constitute an epoch 
in their lives never to be forgotten. A recital of those scenes 
now sounds more like romance than reality. 

When General Morton returned to Washington, he was placed 
in charge of the entire work of the Washington Aqueduct. In 
March. 1861, he was sent to the Gulf of Mexico, for the purpose 
of putting the fortifications of the Dry Tortugas in a state of 
complete defence. These works are built upon a coral reef or 
island which rises about two feet above the surface of the Gulf of 
Mexico. The fort is planned to mount over four hundred guns, 
and is considered the strongest on the continent and the key to 
the Gulf 



182 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Having been prostrated by a return of Chagres fever, General 
Morton was compelled to return Korth to recruit his health. 
Upon his recovery, in May, 1862, he reported for duty to Major- 
General Halleck, and was assigned as chief engineer to the Army 
of the Ohio, under General Buell. In that capacity he made 
the campaign of 1862, being busily engaged in superintending 
ibe building of bridges, stockades, and other defences upon 
railroads and pikes between Nashville and Huntsville. 

Upon the march of General Buell's troops to Kentucky, Cap- 
tain Morton was ordered to remain at ^Nashville and superintend 
the erection of fortifications in conjunction with Generals Negley 
and Palmer, it having been represented by him and others to 
General Buell that with proper fortifications the place could 
be successfully held. He pushed forward their construction 
most vigorously, employing the soldiery, and "pressing" the 
negroes of Nashville and vicinity, and teams of all kinds, 
without stint or scruple. The colored population of that city 
have probably not yet forgotten the suddenness with which 
his men gathered them in from barber-shojjs, kitchens, and even 
churches, and set them at work upon St. Cloud Hill, where was 
then a combination of rock and forest, but where now rise the 
frowning battlements of Fort Negley, commanding the entire 
city and surrounding country. The erection of this and other 
works unquestionably contributed greatly to the safety of the 
city, the rebel army not venturing an attack. 

Upon assuming command of the Army of the Cumberland, 
General Eosecrans organized the Pioneer Brigade, as related 
elsewhere in this chapter, and placed General Morton in com- 
mand. From that time until the present writing his labors 
have been constant and arduous, — at times dangerous. At the 
battle of Stone Eiver he acted a conspicuous and gallant part, 
proving himself equally the brave soldier and the skilful engi- 
neer. The following special mention of the action of the Pioneers 
and their commander upon that occasion is copied from General 
Kosecrans's official report : — 



BRiaADIER-GENERAL JAMES ST. CLAIR MORTON. 183 

" Amoug the lesser commands which deserve special mention for distin- 
guished service in the battle is the Pioneer Corps, a body of seventeen hun- 
dred (1700) men, composed of details from the companies of each infantry 
regiment, organized and instructed by Captain James St. Clair Morton, Corps 
of Engineers, Chief Engineer of this army, which marched as an infantry 
brigade with the left wing, making bridges at Stewart's Creek, prepared and 
guarded the fort at Stone River on the nights of the 29th and 30th, supported 
Stokes's battery, and fought with valor and determination on the 31st, holding 
its position until relieved ; on the morning of the 2d advancing with the 
greatest promptitude and gallantry to support Van Cleve's division against 
the attack on our left ; on the evening of the same day, constructing a bridge 
and batteries between that time and Saturday evening. The efficiency and 
esprit de corps suddenly developed in this command, its gallant behavior in 
action, the eminent service it is continually rendering the army, entitle both 
officers and men to special public notice and thanks, while they reflect the 
highest credit on the distinguished ability and capacity of Captain Morton, 
who will do honor to his promotion to brigadier-general, which the Presi- 
dent has promised him." 

The promise of the President was faithfully redeemed, and 
Morton was nominated and confirmed brigadier-general, much 
to the satisfaction of his many friends and acquaintances. Since 
the battle of Stone Eiver the Pioneers have been " the observed 
of all observers." General Morton planned the bridges and 
fortifications of Murfreesborongh, which have been constructed 
with hardly a dollar of cost to the Government beyond the usual 
army expenses. The town is defended, as a base, and the work 
has given confidence to our army, and assured the secessionists 
of that region that we have gone there to stay, and intend to 
hold old Tennessee to the Union with triple hooks and bands of 
steel. 

The principal characteristic of General Morton is his indomi- 
table energy, coupled with extensive information and practical 
experience. He is out among his men early and late. If any 
special duty calls, he is always at hand. He does not say, " Go," 
but, "Come." This was recently exemplified at Stone Eiver, 
where his new railroad-bridge was in danger of being swept 
away during a sudden freshet by the accumulation of drift-wood 
against the piers. ~Eoi satisfied with the progress of the work, 
ne rushed into the water waist-deep, adjusted ropes to the 



184 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

logs and trees, and gave the command to " heave away." He 
is the author of several pamphlets treating of military subjects, 
most of which have been published by the War Department 
in its official reports, and also of a new theory respecting fortifi- 
cations, which has occasioned considerable debate in military 
circles. 

As we have already remarked, one of the most noticeable 
traits of the people of our country is their early development ; 
and Brigadier-General Morton, with many other young generals 
and high officials in the Army of the Cumberland, may be cited 
as apt illustrations of the fact. The honors of such young 
men are true and lasting, — having been won through dangers, 
toils, and privations ; and their grateful countrymen will freely 
acknowledge that they were well deserved. 



THE STAFF. 



Lieutenant Cornelius V. Lamberson, Assistant Adjutant- 
General, was born in New York City, and is now twenty-six 
years of age. Previous to the war he was in business at 
Chicago, Illinois, where his family still reside. He entered the 
service April 17, 1861, and was with the first company that 
occupied Cairo, as first lieutenant in the 19th Illinois Infantry. 
He was in the Missouri campaign, and in General O. M. Mitchel's 
campaign through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, also in 
the skirmishes of Tuscumbia and Leighton, Alabama, and Eey- 
nolds's Station, Tennessee, and participated in the battle of Stone 
Eiver. 

Lieutenant Abram Pelham, Quartermaster, is a native of 
Delaware county. New York, and is now thirty years of age. 
His residence is Tecumseh, Michigan. He entered the service 
November 7, 1861. With his regiment he served under General 



LIEUTENANT JOHN B. REEVE. 185 

Buell in Kentucky and Tennessee, most of the time acting as 
quartermaster. He was with the army at Nashville when Gene- 
ral Eosecrans assumed command, and was afterwards in the 
battle of Stone Eiver. His rank and position is that of first 
lieutenant in the 13th Michigan Volunteers. 

Lieutenant Kilbern "W. Mansfield, Commissary of Subsist- 
ence, is a native of Stanbridge, Canada East, and is twenty-six 
years old. His residence is in Otsego, Michigan, where before 
the rebellion he was a law-student. October 24, 1861, he enlisted 
in the 13th Michigan Volunteers as a private. He served through 
Buell's campaigns, and was in the battles of Shiloh, Stevenson, 
Alabama, and Stone Eiver. 

Lieutenant Thomas J. Kibkman, Inspector, was born in 
Jacksonville, Hlinois, in 1837, and at the time of the outbreak 
of the rebellion was an attorney-at-law in his native town. May 
7, 1861, he entered the service in the 21st Illinois Infantry, and 
served in Missouri and Arkansas under General Curtis, with 
General Eosecrans in Northern Mississippi, and with General 
Buell in the fall of 1862. He has been in the following- skii-- 
mishes and battles : — Mount Washington, Fredericktown, Perry- 
ville, and Stone Eiver. 

Lieutenant John B. Eeeve, Aid e-de- Camp, is a native of Eush 
county, Indiana, twenty-eight years of age, and enlisted in the 
37th Indiana Eegiment on the 10th of September, 1861. He 
served under General Mitchel in Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Alabama, and was present at the cannonading of Chattanooga 
by General Kegley in June, 1862. During the investment of 
Nashville by the rebels in October, 1862, he was on duty with 
the garrison, and in the battle of Stone Eiver took an active 
and gallant part. He is a farmer by profession. 

Francis Pearsall, Assistant Engineer and Volunteer Aide-de- 
Camp, is a native of Pennsylvania, and resides in Philadelphia. 



186 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

His age is thirty-one; and he is a merchant and manufacturer as 
well as engineer. He served with General Morton in Central 
America and at Fort Jefferson, Key West. He joined the army 
at Naahville about the 20th of November, 1862, as assistant 
euii-ineer, and in the battle of Stone Kiver rendered valuable 
service. 



THE PIONEER BEIGADE. 



A NEW feature in the Army of the Cumberland is the Pioneer 
Brigade. The war for the suppression of the rebellion has 
peculiar difficulties and necessities. The armies are so large, 
and the territory traversed by them is so extended, that the 
construction and repair of roads, bridges, and railways have 
become matters of serious, often of vital, importance. 

Early in the war. General Eosecrans saw the necessity of an 
arm of the service which should be organized specially for the 
performance of mechanical and pioneer duties, and upon taking 
the command of the Army of the Cumberland he organized the 
Pioneer Brigade from the ranks of the 14th Army Corps, by the 
following general order : — 

" General Orders, No. 3. 

" IlEAD-QuARTEns 14th Arjiy Corps, Department of the Cumberland, 
Bowling Green, November 3, 1862. 

" There will be detailed immediately, from each company of 
every regiment of infantry in this army, two men, who shall be 
organized as a pioneer or engineer corps attached to its regi- 
ment. The twenty men will be selected with great care, half 
laborers and half mechanics. The most intelligent and ener- 
getic lieutenant in the regiment, with the best knowledge of 
civil engineering, will be detailed to command, assisted by two 
non-commissioned officers. This officer shall be responsible for 
all equipage, and shall receipt accordingly. 



THE PIONEER BRIGADE. 187 

" Under certain circumstances, it may be necessary to mass this 
force : when orders are given for such a movement, they must be 
promptly obeyed. 

" The wagons attached to the corps shall carry all the tools, 
and the men's camp-equipage. The men shall carry their arms, 
ammunition, and clothing. 

" Division quartermasters will immediately make requisitions 
on chief quartermasters for the equipment, and shall issue t^. 
regimental quartermasters on proper requisition. 

" EQUIPMENT FOR TWENTY MEN — ESTIMATE FOR REGIMENT. 



Six Felling-Axes. 
Six Hatchets. 
Two Cross-Cut Saws. 
Two Cross-Cut Files. 
Two Hand-Saws. 
Four Hand-Saw Files. 
Six Spades. 
Two Shovels. 
Three Picks. 



Six Hammers. 
Two Half-Inch Augers. 
Two Inch Augers. 
Two Two-Inch Augers. 
Twenty lbs. Nails, assorted. 
Forty lbs. Spikes, assorted. 
One coil Rope. 

One Wagon, with four horses or 
mules. 



" It is hoped that regimental commanders will see the obvious 
utility of this order, and do all in their power to render it as 
eflScient as possible. 

" By command of Major-General Eosecrans. 

" Arthur C. Ducat, 
'^ Jjieutenant- Colonel, and Acting Cliief of Staff. 
"■ Official : — 

" A. A. A. a." 

The troops detailed in accordance with the above order num- 
bered about three thousand men. 

The duties assigned to them were the repair and construc- 
tion of roads and bridges, the manoeuvring of the pontoon-bridge 
equipage, the erection of fortifications, and, generally, the duties 
of sappers and miners. The distinction between their duties 
and those of the Michigan regiment of mechanics and engineers 



188 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

of the same army is that the Pioneers move with the advance 
of the army, all the work that is required there devolving upon 
them, while the latter is chiefly employed on the lines of com- 
munication. 

The Pioneers, having been assembled in a camp of instruction 
at Nashville, were consolidated and organized as a brigade, the 
object being to enable the various descriptions of labor and 
workmanship demanded by the exigencies of a large army to 
be executed with more harmony and system, with, less incon- 
venience, and with greater despatch than could be attained were 
it necessary to call upon each regiment in the army, whenever 
a bridge, a block-house, or a field-work had to be constructed, 
for its detail of mechanics suitable for the work, its share of the 
tools, materials, &c. A great difficulty would have been met 
with in endeavoring to concentrate the labor of the Pioneers, 
had they not been consolidated, in the details from each regi- 
ment not being able to rendezvous with fheir tents or cooking- 
utensils, seeing that each two men would belong to a separate 
mess in their regiment ; nor could they have been organized, so 
as to draw their rations, to post guards, and to do military duty 
as it should be done, — ^viz. systematically and under the direction 
of the same officers. Many other sources of confusion and 
delay and bad work will present themselves to the commanding 
general ; but enough has been mentioned to prove the soundness 
of his order consolidating the details of pioneers. 

In that order it was required that the Pioneer details from 
the " centre" grand division of the army, now the 14th Army 
Corps, should constitute the first battalion, those from the 
" right," now the 20th Army Corps, the second, those from the 
"left," now the 21st Army Corps, the third. Each battalion 
was subdivided into ten or twelve companies of eighty or a 
hundred men, each of which was formed by aggregating the 
details furnished from the four or five regiments composing 
a single brigade. The field and company officers of the bat- 
talion were assigned according to rank,— the ranking lieutenant 
in each acting as lieutenant-colonel, and so on, the ranking 



THE PIONEER BRIGADE. 189 

lieutenant in each brigade detachment of eighty or a hundred 
men acting as captain of the pioneer company constituted by 
such detachment. 

The campaign of Murfreesborough gave constant employment 
to the Pioneers; and the results of their labor show that the men 
and the organization are well adapted to the requirements of 
the service. Their constructions have been substantial and 
scientific, and are executed in a uniform style. 

The system of administration for the safe-keeping and trans- 
portation of the immense store of implements and materials 
necessary on a campaign remote from supplies has proved judi- 
cious. As a unit, the brigade has on the battle-field proved itself 
as soldierly as any other troops in the army, and when sepa- 
rated into detached parts, working at distant points and on long 
lines of road, its discipline has always been observed. 

There are at present in the ranks of the Pioneers sufficient 
proportions of the following-named trades and specialties, — viz. : 
military engineers, civil engineers, railroad engineers, surveyors, 
architects, sailors, draftsmen, printers, bridge-builders, car- 
penters, machinists, millwrights, wheelwrights, coopers, black- 
smiths, saddlers, sawyers, woodmen ; and there is no description 
of work that an army in the field can require, in all the multi- 
plied occasions which arise in an enemy's country, that cannot 
be executed with despatch by the brigade, which is fully 
©quipped with the proper tools for all purposes. 

The Pioneer Brigade now comprises four battalions, numbering 
about three thousand eight hundred effective men. It has some 
fifty wagon-loads of tools, implements, and building and con- 
structing apparatus of all descriptions. There is also attached 
to the brigade a pontoon-train of eighty boats, forty of which 
they can move at one time in line of march. A system of order 
and celerity has been adopted by which this brigade can plan 
and superintend work in two hours' time from the commence- 
ment, employing ten thousand men in its execution. 

The labors already performed by this brigade are immense. It 
has fortified every railroad-bridge between Gallatin and JSTash- 
i 



190 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

ville and between Nashville and Murfreesborough, and in such 
a manner that the enemy have not as yet risked a single attack 
upon them. In and about Nashville it performed very important 
work, especially in completing and perfecting the works of Fort 
Negley, rendering it one of the strongest fortresses in the West. 
As our army advanced upon the enemy from Nashville, the 
brigade erected two' bridges over Stewart's Creek, obtaining a 
portion of the timbers by tearing down some large log houses in 
the vicinity. During one night it threw a temporary bridge, 
some eighty feet in length, across Stone Eiver, upon which troops 
crossed and re-crossed. Since the battle the brigade has built 
two fine bridges over Stone Eiver near Murfreesborough, at 
points where the pike and railroad cross that stream. 

Its last work has been, with the assistance of details of troops 
of the line, the erection of the fortifications at Murfreesborough, 
— said to be the largest and finest field-works upon this continent. 
The several massive forts, the thousands of feet of high embank- 
ments upon every hand, the long lines of warehouses for the 
storing of army supplies, alongside of which railroad-tracks 
have been laid, and the comfortable houses (frames) which have 
been torn down elsewhere and re-erected within those works, 
all speak volumes in praise of the efficiency of the Pioneers. 
It must not, however, be inferred that the work upon the fortifi- 
cations is performed by them alone. The heavy earth-work — 
the digging, the wheeling and ramming — is done by details of 
soldiers and by hired refugees and contrabands. During several 
weeks some seven thousand workmen were thus at work upon 
these fortifications, the Pioneers planning and superintending, 
and executing the wood-work, &c. of the magazines and block- 
houses. 

Not only as composed of faithful workmen, but also of brave 
soldiers, is the Pioneer Brigade known throughout the Army of 
the Cumberland. As will be seen elsewhere in this volume, it 
occupied most responsible and important positions during the 
battles of Stone Eiver. During the hottest of the battle of the 
Slst, when the fortunes of the day wavered between contending 



THE PIONEER BRIGADE. 191 

hosts, the Pioneers were ordered by the general commanding 
to hold an important position with their battery (the Chicago 
Board of Trade Battery), which was successfully accomplished, 
the enemy being repulsed three times at that point with signal 
slaughter. 

The members of this organization are proud of its success 
and its deserved popularity. The men are ever industrious and 
cheerful, and ready at a moment's call. So true is it that labor 
in camp, as well as at home, is the polishing process, to develop, 
preserve, and brighten the physical and mental forces. The 
Pioneer Brigade is a complete success, — fully realizing all that 
was expected of it by its practical, far-seeing originator, Major- 
General Eosecrans. No such body of skilful, energetic, intel- 
ligent men can be found in all rebeldom, — a little army of patriots 
who fight for their country equally well whether armed with 
the musket, the broad-axe, or the spade. 



^ii;st Pkhijgan (gttjginccr (^orp and its €|fiqrs. 

This notable regiment was organized September 12, 1861, and 
left the State December 17, 1861. Crossing the Ohio Eiver, it 
reported to General Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio, 
and encamped near Louisville, December 18, 1861. Colonel 
Innes, with three companies, was ordered to report to General 
McCook ; Lieutenant-Colonel Hunton, with three companies, to 
General Thomas; Major Hopkins, with two companies, to Gene- 
ral Nelson ; and Captain Yates, with two companies, to General 
Mitchel. Each of these generals commanded separate divisions 
of what was then the Army of the Ohio. The store-houses and 
forts at Green Eiver were built by this command; and, in com- 
pliment to the colonel, one of the forts was named by General 
McCook Fort Innes. Miles of road were constructed by Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Hunton's command, in order to enable General 
Thomas to reach Mill Spring. Had it not been for their energy, 
the ammunition and supplies could not have reached General 
Thomas's troops. Major Hopkins's command was with General 
Nelson, and for its excellent service was highly complimented 
by the general. Captain Yates's command built several bridges, 
and cleared the road from Green Eiver to Bowling Green of all 
the obstructions placed there by the rebels. So rapidly was 
this woi'k done that the march of the column was not inter- 
rupted. These two companies, supporting Loomis's Battery, 
were the first troops to enter Bowling Green. They rendered 
most efficient service in crossing the army over Barren Eiver, 
the bridges being gone. When Buell's army arrived at Nash- 
ville, the regiment was ordered to duty under Colonel Innes; 
but so highly did General Mitchel value the detachment of 
Captain Yates that he persuaded General Buell to allow him 

192 



©Ol.O"E^'"---t 




A m B 
»rEFS1SlEt ®F STAF2F. 



FIRST MICHIGAN ENGINEER CORPS AND ITS OFFICERS. 193 

to retain them. The eight companies under Colonel Innes 
opened and repaired the Tennessee & Alabama Eailroad as far 
as Columhia, Tennessee, thus greatly facilitating the shipment 
of supplies for Buell's army, then on the march to Shiloh. They 
also built several road-bridges; and the rapidity with which they 
performed their work enabled General Buell to reach the field 
of Shiloh in time to rescue the army of General Grant. In front 
of Corinth the Michigan Engineers were busily engaged in 
building roads, planting siege-guns, erecting ho8j)itals, &c. 

Captain Yates's command in the mean time was engaged with 
General Mitchel in Northern Alabama, who acknowledged that 
he was indebted to them for his supplies being always furnished 
and communication being kept open. Between Corinth and 
Decatur Colonel Innes's command rej^aired the railroad-track, 
and built two thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight feet of 
bridging, at an average height of forty feet, in thirty days. 
After the evacuation of Corinth, the engineers marched along 
the line of the Memphis & Charleston Eailroad in advance of the 
whole army, and opened the road as far as Bear Creek. At this 
place they were attacked by a rebel force, which they quickly 
dispersed. They then opened the railroad as far as Decatur. 

On the 3d day of July they arrived at Iluntsville, and wore 
joined by Captain Yates's detachment. The regiment then 
proceeded to open the Nashville & Chattanooga Eailroad to 
Murfreesbprough, building a large bridge at Cowen's Station, 
several smaller ones at different points on the road, and clear- 
ing out the tunnels. They opened the Tennessee & Alabama 
Eailroad in an almost incredibly short space of time, building 
a bridge over Elk Eiver six hundred and fifty feet long, three 
bridges over Eichland Creek, each one hundred and forty feet 
long and thirty feet high, and rebuilding twelve hundred feet 
of trestle-work sixty feet high, — the most extensive piece of 
railroad trestle-work in the West. They also cleared out a tun- 
nel three-quarters of a mile in length, which completed the 
opening of the road from Iluntsville to Nashville. 

At Stevenson, Alabama, the regiment built one hundred pon- 

13 



194 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

toon-boats in three daj'S, which, however, were rendered useless 
by the falling back of Buell's army to Kentucky. Upon the 
evacuation of Stevenson Lieutenant-Colonel Hunton's three 
companies were the last troops to leave the post, and were 
hio-hly complimented by the general commanding for the manner 
in which they discharged their duties, having destroyed every 
thing that could be of use to the eneni}^, and burned the railroad 
and other bridges as fast as crossed by the rear trains. 

While at Stevenson, Colonel Innes, with five companies, was 
ordered to open the Louisville & Kashville Railroad, recently 
destroyed by the enemy; but while so engaged, having built 
three hundred feet of bridging and laid several miles of track, 
they were called oif to take the advance of the entire army, 
which position they occupied throughout the campaign. 

At Bowling Green the regiment was engaged in strengthening 
the fortifications at that place. Major Hopkins's three com- 
panies were in the hottest of the fight at Chaplin Hills (Perry- 
ville); while the rest of the regiment, with the commands of 
Major-Oeneral Crittenden and the late lamented General Sill, 
were not idle. 

On taking leave of the Army of the Ohio, General Buell made 
personal mention of Colonel Innes. Lieutenant-Colonel Hunton, 
and Major Hopkins, complimenting them highly and giving the 
regiment great credit. Tliey were the only field-officers of 
whom he made personal mention, and the regiment was the only 
•one which he mentioned specifically. 

The regiment arrived at Nashville November 7, 1862, when 
Colonel Innes was desired by General Eosecrans to open the 
Louisville & Nashville Railroad to Gallatin, and also to build the 
three bridges over Mill Creek on the Nashville & Chattanooga 
Railroad, — all of which was accomplished in the short space of 
two weeks. 

On the 1st of January, 186.S, while the battle of Stone River 
was raging, the Michigan Engineer Regiment was stationed at 
Lavergne for the purpose of protecting the supply-trains of 
itiiemain army. 



FIRST MICHIGAN ENGINEER CORPS AND ITS d^FICERS. 195 

At one P.M. of that day they were attacked by General 
Wheeler's cavalry and a battery of artillery, the force number- 
ing four or five thousand men. Single-handed and alone, the 
regiment fought the rebels for four hours from behind breast- 
works of brush-heaps and rails, when the enemy sent in a flag 
of truce demanding an immediate and unconditional surrender. 
But the brave colonel told the officer bearing the flag to say to 
General Wheeler, " We don't surrender much." They again 
attacked, were repulsed, and left the field covered with their 
dead. This was the first instance in the history of the war 
where a force attacked in this manner did not surrender. 

By this gallant fight the entire rear of the army and nearly 
all its baggage-train were saved. General Eosecrans in his 
official report gave the regiment credit for whipping ten times 
its number, and characterized the aff'air as one of the most bril- 
liant of the war. 

While at Lavergne, the regiment wielded the axe vigorously, 
and furnished sufficient ties to relay three miles of railroad-track. 
They were then ordered to Murfreesborough. After remaining 
at Murfreesborough a few days, the officers requested General 
Eosecrans to let the regiment open the Nashville & Chattanooga 
Eailroad from Nashville to Murfreesborough, promising to do 
it in ten days. On the ninth day the cars ran into Murfrees- 
borough. A citizen company had been for six weeks endeavoring 
to open the road, but had been almost daily driven off by guer- 
rillas. 

Colonel Innes next requested permission to open the Ten- 
nessee & Alabama Eailroad to Franklin. The work was done 
before the general commanding was aware it had been com- 
menced. The regiment has since constructed within the 
notable fortifications at Murfreesborough a large store-house 
capable of holding five million rations, a magazine one hundred 
and forty feet long, thirty-two feet wide, twelve feet high, and 
bomb-proof, and an ordnance-building one hundred feet long, thirty 
feet wide, and fourteen feet high, — all within thirty days' time. 
Its officers claim that there has not been an engagement of the 



196 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

army, fiom the battle of Mill Spring to the battle of Stone 
Eiver, in which the regiment or some portion of it has not been 
engaged. The Engineer Eegiment is recognized as an inde- 
pendent corps, is not brigaded, and reports direct to the com- 
manding general of the department. 

Since the regiment has been in the service, they have laid 
over ten thousand lineal feet of railroad, built a number of high- 
way bridges, erected store-houses, and made over twelve miles 
of corduroy road at Shiloh, Mill Spring, and elsewhere. But 
one man has ever been injured while at work; and he is now on 
duty. The effective force of the regiment, May 1, 1863, is eight 
hundred men. 



OFFIOEES or THE PIEST MICHIGAN ENGIIfEEES. 

Colonel "William P. Innes entered the service September 12, 
1861. By profession a civil engineer, he was engaged for a 
number of years on railroads in the State of New York. In 
1853 he went to Michigan, and became largely engaged in the 
railroad-operations of that State. At the time of his entering 
the service he was chief engineer and superintendent of the 
Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay Eailroad. This is the largest 
" land-grant" railroad in the United States, except the Illinois 
Central. His residence is at Grand Eapids, Michigan. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Kinsma A. Hunton entered the service 
September 12, 1861. Previous to that time he was engaged on 
various railroads in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 
1853 he removed to Marshall, Michigan, as master-mechanic of 
the middle division of the Michigan Central Eailroad, which 
position he left to enter the service. Eesidence, Marshall, 
Michigan. 



FIRST MICHIGAN ENGINEER CORPS AND ITS OFFICERS. 197 

Major Enos Hopkins was formerly extensively engaged is. 
manufacturing at the East. In 1854, business brought him to 
Michigan, where he has since resided. He became identified 
with this regiment on its first organization, leaving a large 
and lucrative business to devote his energies to the service of 
his country. Residence, Jackson, Michigan. ^ 

Major John B. Yates, a graduate of Union College, has been 
all his life actively engaged in civil engineering. He commenced 
his career in New York. He accompanied Colonel Innes to 
Michigan in 1853, and has been with him ever since. . He en- 
tered the service as captain of Company A. He was promoted 
to be junior major, January 1, 1863, for gallant conduct at 
Lavergne. Eesidence, Ionia, Michigan. 

Surgeon William H. De Camp graduated at Geneva (New 
York) Medical College in 1847. After practising medicine in 
Western New York for eight years, he went to Michigan, and at 
the time of his joining the service he left a large and lucrative 
practice in the city of Grand Rapids, where he resides. 

Assistant Surgeon Willoughby O'Donoughue graduated at 
Albany (New York) Medical College in 1850, and practised four 
years in the New York hospitals. In 1854 he moved to Michigan, 
where he has since resided. He entered the service September 
12, 1861. Residence, Albion, Michigan. 

Junior Assistant Surgeon Willard B. Smith graduated at 
the Medical College, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1861. He was 
appointed by Governor Blair, December, 1862. Eesidence, Ann 
Arbor, Michigan. 

First Lieutenant Henry F. Williams, Regimental Quarter- 
master, entered the service as a private in Company I, September 
15, 1861. He was appointed sergeant-major September 18, 1861, 
commissioned as second lieutenant January 30, 1862, as first 



198 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

lieutenant July 30, 1862, and appointed regimental quarter- 
master December 1, 1862. Eesidence, Grand Eapids, Michigan. 

Second Lieutenant Charles W. Calkins, Adjutant, entered 
the service, as a private in Company B, September 26, 1861. 
He was promoted to sergeant-major January 30, 1862, was com- 
missioned as second lieutenant July 30, 1862, and appointed adju- 
tant December 1, 1?62. Eesidence, Grand Eapids, Michigan. 



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THE CAVALRY SERVICE AND ITS OFFICERS. 



David S. Stanley, Major-General of Volunteers, and Captain 
in the 4th Eegular Cavalry, was born in Cedar Valley, Wayne 
county, Ohio, June 1, 1828. His father was a farmer. At the 
age of fourteen, upon the death of his mother, he became a 
member of the family of Dr. L. Fairstone, a physician of the 
county, with whom he remained until he was nearly nineteen. 
He then began in earnest the study of medicine ; but, before he 
had completed or fairly begun his course, he was, in the spring 
of 1848, appointed a cadet at the Military Academy at West 
Point, by the member of Congress from that district, Hon. Samuel 
Lahm. 

Entering the same summer, he graduated July 1, 1852, stand- 
ing eighth in a class which numbered about one hundred and 
twenty at first, but graduated only fortj^-two. Among his 
classmates were Major-Generals McCook, Hartsuff, Slocum, and 
Sheridan, and Brigadier-Generals Hascall, Crooks, and Woods. 
Five members of the class. were from Ohio, and all of them are 
now generals in the Federal service. After graduating, he was 
brevetted second lieutenant in the 2d Dragoons, — ^now the 2d 
Cavalry, — and for one year attended the school of instruction 
at Carlisle Barracks. In the spring of 1853 he was detailed as 
assistant to Lieutenant Whipple, in charge of the survey of a 
route for the Pacific Eailroad along the 35th parallel, by way 
of Fort Smith and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Upon this ser- 
vice he remained nine months, crossing the continent to San- 
tiago, California, by a then new and unexplored route, starting 

199 



200 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

from an Indian village north of the Gila Elver, and going by 
way of the Mohave Yalley to San Bernardino. Having in 
the mean while been promoted to a second lieutenancy, he 
returned to Washington at the close of his services in this expe- 
dition, in company with the present rebel General Hardee. 
Lieutenant Stanley's company was then stationed at Fort Chad- 
bourne, Texas, whither he proceeded and remained one year on 
ordinary garrison duty. 

In the spring of 1855, two regiments of infantry and two of 
cavalry were added to the army, in accordance with an act of 
Congress authorizing such increase. To command these new 
foj-ces, officers were selected in equal pro23ortions from civil life 
and from the army. Lieutenant Stanley now received a com- 
mission as first lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry, of which the late 
Major-General Sumner was colonel. The regiment rendezvoused 
tit Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, and Lieutenant Stanley 
was assigned to Company D, of which General George B. 
McClellan was then captain. Ill health, however, would not 
allow him to join his command; and he was transferred to duty 
at Newport Barracks, where he remained during the winter and 
spring. Thence he was ordered to take charge of the recruits 
at Governor's Island, New York harbor, and proceed with them 
up the Missouri Eiver to join the force of General Harney, then 
commanding an expedition against the Sioux Indians. At the 
conclusion of this, he rejoined his regiment, then on duty in 
Kansas, engaged in preserving peace and order in the Territory, 
which was being ravaged by the two opposing parties, border- 
rutiians and jayhawkers. In pursuit of one or the other of 
these. Lieutenant Stanley marched over the Territory, from one 
border to another. The lieutenant-colonel of the regiment was 
the present rebel General Joseph E. Johnston, who, to do him 
justice, took a bold, manly stand against the border-ruffians 
overrunning Kansas. A large force from Missouri, under 
command of Dave Atchison, threatening Lecompton and Law- 
rence, he interposed to save them, assuring the Missourians that 
they could only succeed in their attempt by walking over the 



MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID S. STANLEY. 201 

force under nis eommaud. As this consisted of a full Toatteiy 
and a regiment or two, he thought they would find it a rather 
difficult thing to do. In this position Colonel Johnston was 
sustained by Lieutenant Stanley, with the other officers of his 
command, and the invading force, under these circumstances, 
deemed it advisable to retire. The fall and winter were spent 
in similar efforts to quiet the distracted Territory. 

In the spring of 1857, Lieutenant Stanley was married to 
Miss Anna M. Wright, daughter of Surgeon Wright, U.S.A., 
of Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Soon afterwards he was 
engaged in an expedition against the Cheyenne Indians. The 
forces marched in two columns, which joined each other at 
Pike's Peak, on the spot where Denver City now stands. At 
that time, however, it was an unbroken wilderness, the presence 
of gold not being even suspected. From this point the expedi- 
tion started on pack-mules, with twenty days' provisions, which 
were made to last two months. Supplying itself with buffalo- 
meat by the way, the expedition, after a most remarkable trip, 
came upon the Indians on Solomon's Fork, who were drawn up 
in line of battle about two hundred yards distant, — an unusual 
circumstance, and perhaps the first instance of the kind on record. 
Colonel Sumner at once ordered a sabre-charge, which put them 
to flight with the loss of several killed. This, with the destruc- 
tion of their village, compelled them to sue for peace. Upon 
returning from this expedition, he was ordered to the Indian 
Territory west of Arkansas, and in the spring of 1858 was en- 
gaged in scouting, making several expeditions, in one of which 
he surprised a party of Comanches, killing several of them and 
scattering the remainder. For gallant conduct in these opera- 
tions he was highly complimented by General Scott, in general 
orders. The next summer and winter he was stationed upon 
the frontiers of Northern Texas. 

At the outbreak of the rebellion, having previously been pro- 
moted to a captaincy, he was stationed at Fort Smith, Arkansas. 
Here he rendered inestimable service to the Government by 
assisting in the successful abandonment of Forts Smith, Wachita, 



202 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Arbuckle, and Cobb. Notwithstanding the large rebel force in 
Arkansas and Texas, all the ammunition, clothing, and other 
property of the Government was safely brought away. "With 
the garrisons of these forts he marched from Fort Cobb to Fort 
Leavenworth, Kansas, being one month on the road. Upon 
reaching the latter place, Captain Stanley found the rebellion 
under full headway and Missouri in a blaze of excitement. 
Many officers were joining the rebels, and many were uncertain 
what to do. The times were dark, the prospect gloomy ; but he 
wavered not a moment. From the first he was uncompro- 
misingly loyal; and now, with his whole heart in the Avork, he 
gave his influence and his aid to the support of the Government. 
As a first step, he marched his command to Kansas City, Mis- 
souri, and took possession of that place. A considerable force of 
rebels had gathered at Independence, under the ostensible com- 
mand of Colonel Hollaway, an old United States officer. The 
State of Missoui'i, though much excited, had not actually seceded 
from the Union, and there was really no war in the State, except 
that carried on by bushwhackers and guerrillas not as yet in any 
regular service. Under such circumstances, the gathering at 
Independence partook more of the character of a mob than of a 
military camp. Still, as it might prove the germ of something 
formidable, Captain Stanley determined to ascertain its real 
character and the intentions of those composing it. Accord- 
ingly, a few days after arriving at Kansas City, he proceeded 
with a flag of truce to Independence, and had an interview 
with Colonel Hollaway. While engaged in remonstrating with 
the latter upon his course, Captain^^ Stanley observed that the 
rebels were closing in around him and his command. He directed 
Colonel Hollaway's attention to it, and asked him if his men did 
not mean to respect the flag of truce. Upon this Hollaway 
stepped up and waved the men back with his hand; but they 
were intoxicated and maddened with liquor, and either misun- 
derstood the motion or purposely disobeyed it, and fired upon 
Captain Stanley and his company, killing Colonel Hollaway and 
one of the Federal soldiers. The interview had taken place in 



MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID S. STANLEY. 203 

a narrow lane, and the rebels had ranged themselves upon each 
side of it. The day was hot, dry, and dusty, and Captain Stanley's 
men, in making their escape, raised such a cloud of dust that 
their exit was not noticed by the rebels, who continued a rapid 
firing across the lane, killing and wounding a considerable 
number of their own men. Discovering their mistake, they 
spent the night in a fierce quarrel among themselves, and the 
next day, disgusted with this experience, i-etreated southward 
to join Price. Colonel Hollaway was acting in good faith, and 
fell a victim to the drunken fury of the men whom he could not 
restrain. 

Shortly after this. Captain Stanley crossed the river and cap- 
tured a large squad of rebels on their way to Price's army. 
Marching southward with General Sturgis in pursuit of Price, 
he joined Genei-al Lyon at Clinton, Missouri, and participated in 
the aflFair at Dug Springs and the battle of Wilson's Creek. In 
this engagement he won due credit by his gallant conduct and 
by the skilful manner in which he handled his men. He also 
accompanied the expedition which captured Forsyth, Missouri, 
and there had a horse killed under him. After the battle of Wil- 
son's Creek he returned with his command (the 4th Cavalry) to 
Eolla and St. Louis, and afterwards joined General Fremont in his 
march to Springfield. During the summer he received several 
off'ers of a colonelcy from Illinois regiments, and also one 
from an Iowa regiment, all of which he declined ; and on the 
28th of September, 1861, he was appointed a brigadier-general 
of volunteers. During a part of the following winter he was 
unable to take the field, because of a broken leg, caused by his 
horse falling with him. Upon his recovery he was assigned to 
General Pope, then on his expedition against New Madrid. At 
the latter place General Stanley's division was the first to occupy 
the trenches in front of the enemy's position, which compelled 
them to evacuate the town. It engaged in the operations at 
Island No. 10, and was the second to cross the Mississippi to the 
Tennessee shore at the time of the capture of that place. 

After this he moved with the remainder of Pope's army down 



204- ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

the river to Fort Pillow, and, its capture being deemed imprac- 
ticable, returned and ascended the Tennessee Eiver, in pursuance 
of orders from General Halleck at Corinth. Here General 
Stanley had command of the 2d Division of the Army of the 
Mississippi, a part of which was engaged in the battle of Far- 
mington. May 28, 1862, in a second engagement, he repulsed 
an attack of Cleborne's division upon our left wing. The fight 
was a desperate one, in which two of Stanley's batteries were 
captured by the enemy and were retaken in a few seconds 
thereafter. With his division he entered Corinth after the eva- 
cuation, and joined in pursuing the fleeing rebels as far as Boone- 
ville. Returning to Corinth, the division remained in camp 
until the latter part of August, when it occupied the railroad 
from luka to Decatur. After the battle of luka, in which it 
was engaged, it retui-ned to Corinth and participated in the battle 
at that i3lace. Here General Stanley commanded the left of the 
centre, supporting and occupying the ground about " Battery 
Robinette." It was the first time his troops had had occasion 
to use the bayonet; but the two regiments of his division which 
charged used it well. After the rebels retreated, General Stan- 
ley joined in the pursuit to Ripley, forty miles south, when 
the army was ordered to return to Corinth. Had the pursuit 
been continued, he is confident the entire rebel army would 
have been scattered or destroyed, and Vicksburg would have 
been occupied and held. 

Upon General Rosecrans's assignment to the command of the 
Department of the Cumberland, he applied for the transfer of 
General Stanley to the command of the cavalry in that depart- 
ment, which request was granted, and he joined the army at 
Nashville in November, 1862. Since then he has been engaged 
in many raids, skirmishes, and heavier engagements, — a more 
detailed account of which will be found in the history of the 
operations of the Army of the Cumberland, as narrated in this 
volume. By his cavalry the enemy were first driven out of 
Franklin, where a considerable fight occurred. He next made 
pursuit of Forrest, then drove the rebels from Liberty and 



COLONEL ROBERT H. Q. MINTY. 205 

Bradyville, and, lastly, was engaged in the battles of Stone Eiver 
and Franklin. At the battle of Stone Eiver he added largely 
to his already great reputation by the marked ability and skill 
which he displayed. Of his services there General Eosecrans 
thus speaks in his official report : — 

" Brigadier-GeDeral Stanley, already distinguished for four successful 
battles, — Island No. 10, May 27, before Corinth, luka, and the battle of Corinth, 
— at this time in command of our ten regiments of cavalry, fought the enemy's 
forty regiments of cavalry, and held them at bay, and beat them vrherever 
he could meet them. He ought to be made a major-general for his services, 
and also for the good of the service." 

General Stanley is now in the prime of early manhood, and 
bids fair to give yet many days of gallant and honorable service 
to his country. In the annals of this war no brighter record 
than his can be found. Bold and dashing, his action is tempered 
and guided by skill and prudence, which make the successful 
commander. 



Colonel Slobert f. (i. pintg. 

Colonel Egbert H. G. Minty, 4th Michigan Cavalry, com- 
manding the 1st Cavalry Brigade, was born in the county of 
Mayo, Ireland, on the 4th of December, 1831. On the 9th of 
January, 1849, he was commissioned ensign in the Ist West 
India Eegiment of the British Army, in which he served for five 
years in the West India Islands, British Honduras, and on the 
west coast of Africa. In September, 1853, he retired from the 
English service, in consequence of a severe attack of inflammation 
of the liver, contracted at Sierra Leone, and came to America. 
On the call being made for cavalry regiments, he joined the 2d 
Michigan Cavalry as major; but before that regiment left the 
State he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Michigan 
Cavalry, and on the 28th of November, 1861, took that regiment 
to Benton Barracks, at St. Louis. His command formed part 



206 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

of the Army of the Mississippi, which marched from Commerce, 
Missouri, on the 1st of March, 1862, under General Pope, and 
it took an active part in the capture of New Madrid on the 13th 
and of Island No. 10 on the 23d of March. 

After the arrival of the Army of the Mississippi before Corinth, 
Colonel Minty was engaged in constant skirmishes with the 
enemy. He commanded the cavalry in the first battle of Far- 
mington, and was favorably mentioned for his conduct on that 
occasion by Major-General Pope, in General Orders No. 104, of 
the 4th of May, 1862. On the 4th of July he was again favor- 
ably mentioned in General Orders No. 81, by Major-General 
Eosecrans, for having at Twenty-Mile Creek, — south of Black- 
land, Mississippi, — on the 16th of June, attacked and defeated 
four times his number of rebel cavalry, — his force consisting of 
one hundred and sixty-eight officers and men of his own regi- 
ment, the enemy's of Brewer's and Lay's regiments of mounted 
infantry, numbering eight hundred and seventy men. On the 
4th of July, he commanded an expedition of one hundred and 
eighty-one men who marched from Eienzi to Salem, Mississippi, 
a distance of fifty-three miles into the enemy's country, return- 
ing after an absence of six days, with a loss of only two men. 

On the 21st of July he was commissioned colonel of the 4th 
Michigan Cavalry, then about to be organized. He left the 3d 
at Tuscumbia, Alabama, on the 1st of August, 1862, having up 
to that time led the regiment in thirty-six battles and skirmishes, 
in every one of which it had been successful. He opened camp 
in Detroit, Michigan, on the 14th of August, and on the 28th 
mustered in eleven hundred and eighty-seven enlisted men, and 
the full quota of officers. Contracts were at once awarded for 
the purchase of horses, the last of which were received on the 
morning of the 26th of September; and at ten o'clock a.m. the 
entire regiment started for Kentucky, and arrived at Jeffereon- 
ville, Indiana, on the 28th, where there was considerable delay 
in procuring supplies; but on the 10th of October the regiment 
marched fi*om Louisville for Perrj'ville, leaving tents, wagons, 
and camp -equipage of every kind behind them. They johied 



COLONEL ROBERT H. G. MINTY. 207 

General Buell at Danville on the night of the 13th, and marched 
at one o'clock on the morning of the 14th, taking the advance 
in the attack on Stamford. Subsequently they followed Bragg 
as far as Crab Orchard, and were then sent in jDnrsuit of John 
.Morgan. At Munfordsville Colonel Minty was joined by the 
entire cavalry force under Colonel Kennett, and, after an un- 
availing chase of ten or twelve days, was, on the 7th of Novem- 
ber, detached, and ordered to report to General Crittenden at 
Gallatin. He crossed 'the Cumberland the same afternoon, 
drove in the enemy's pickets, and sent one company to Nash- 
ville, where it arrived in safety, much to the surprise and grati- 
fication of General Rosecrans. At three o'clock next morning 
the infantry and artillery crossed, when Colonel Minty imme- 
diately mounted and advanced on Lebanon, driving the enemy's 
pickets for seven miles, and went into town at a gallop with 
five hundred and forty-three men, driving out Morgan with 
seven hundred and fifty men and two pieces of artillery, and 
capturing nine wagons, twenty-six mules, five thousand bushels 
of wheat, and large quantities of clothing and provisions of 
every kind. From that time until the 22d of November he 
scoured the country in every direction, having constant skir- 
mishes with the rebels. 

On the 22d of November, he was ordered to Nashville to re- 
port to General Stanley, chief of cavalry, and was assigned to 
the 1st Brigade, Colonel E. M. McCook commanding. Constant 
picket-duty and skirmishing, with two or three important and 
successful expeditions, occupied him while at Nashville. On 
the 23d of December, Colonel McCook obtained leave of absence, 
and Colonel Minty was assigned to the command of the brigade. 
On the 26th the army advanced from Nashville, the Ist Brigade 
in advance, on the Murfreesborough pike, met the enemy five 
miles out, and fought and drove them to Lavergne that night. 
Heavy skirmishing with the enemj^'s cavalry took place every 
day until the 29th, when the array arrived before Murfrees- 
borough. The Ist Brigade, nine hundred and fifty strong, fought 
"Wheeler, "Wharton, and Buford, with two thousand five hundred 



208 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

men and two pieces of artillery, for three hours, on the 31s L 
of December, — General Stanley leading one and Colonel Minty 
two charges, — and drove the rebels from the field with great loss. 

From that time until the present the cavalry arm of the 
Army of the Cumberland has been continuously at work, con- 
stantly engaged and, almost without an exception, successful. 
Some of its most important expeditions and operations we will 
briefly mention. 

On the 10th of January, the 1st Brigade, eight hundred strong, 
started in pursuit of Forrest, who had gone towards Harpeth 
Shoals with fifteen hundred men, and drove him across the 
Harpeth. The rising of that river rendering further pursuit 
impossible, they returned to camj) after an absence of ten days, 
during which time seventeen men were badly frost-bitten. 

On the Slst of January, the 1st Brigade,with the 4th U.S. Cavalry 
and part of the 3d Brigade, under Colonel Minty, marched with 
three days' rations. On the same day the 7th Pennsylvania 
made a sabre-charge, killing three and wounding forty-nine of 
the 8th Confederate Cavalry and taking a large number of 
prisoners, of whom ninety-four were sent the next morning to 
Murfreesborough. Forrest and Wheeler having gone to the 
attack on Fort Donelson, the cavalry followed them for the pur- 
pose of cutting off their retreat, but, learning near Charlotte that 
they had escaped through Centreville, returned to Murfrees- 
borough, having been absent fourteen days, the only casualties 
being tw^o men wounded, and having captured one hundred 
and forty-one prisoners, including two colonels, one major, and 
fourteen other commissioned officers. 

On the od of March, the 1st and 2d Brigades, and two com- 
panies of the 4th U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Colonel 
Minty, moved out with four days' rations, and met the enemy, 
four hundred strong, at Eover. The 7th Pennsylvania, one hun- 
dred and seventy men, supported by the 4th Michigan and 4th 
Regulars (in all, four hundred and thirty-seven men), charged 
and drove them back on an encampment of six hundred more at 
Unionville, charged again, and drove them all at a gallop to 



COLONEL ROBERT H. G. MINTY. 209 

■within five miles of Shelby ville, where they ran into the in- 
fantry pickets and captured seven of them. The result of this 
dash was sixty-four prisoners, seventeen wagons, forty-four 
mules and harness, forty-three tents, and a large quantity of 
commissary stores. The command then marched to Franklin, 
and took the advance in the attack on Van Dorn at Thompson's 
Station, south of Franklin, where the squadron of 4th U.S. 
Cavalry and sixty men of the 7th Pennsylvania drove Arm- 
strong's rebel brigade off the ground, killing five and taking 
thirteen prisoners. Crossing Eutherford's Creek in the face of 
Forrest's force, and driving him from the field with heavy loss, 
Colonel Minty followed Van Dorn to Duck Eiver at Columbia, 
where the destruction of the bridge prevented further pursuit. 

The Ist Brigade had the advance in the pursuit of the enemy 
to and attack on his position at Snow's Hill, east of Liberty, 
where the rebels met with a most signal defeat. 

On tho 20th of April, the Ist, 2d, and 3d Brigades, and the 4tb 
U.S. Cavalry, under Colonel JVIinty, formed part of the expedition 
to McMinnville under General Eeynolds. Colonel Long, with 
the 2d Brigade, destroyed the railroad about twelve miles west 
of McMinnville, and burned a train of cars and a large quantity 
of bacon. The 7th Pennsylvania took the advance in going into 
McMinnville, which place was entered at the gallop, completely 
surprising the rebels. Colonel Martin (rebel) was killed, and 
Major Dick McCann wounded and taken prisoner, in a charge 
made by Lieutenant Thompson, of the 7th Pennsylvania, with 
the advance-guard, twenty-five men. One hundred and thirty 
prisoners were taken, three railroad-bridges and large quantities 
of army stores were destroyed, in addition to what was burned 
by the mounted infantry under Colonel "Wilder, and the expe- 
dition returned to camp, after an absence of six days, without 
the loss of a man. 

14 



210 ARMY OF THE CtJMBERLAND. 

Moml (gli long. 

Colonel Eli Long, of the 4th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, was 
born in Woodford county, Kentucky, June 27, 1836. His ances- 
tors were from "Wales on his father's side and from Germany 
on his mother's side, and his grandfather Long was among the 
early emigrants from Virginia to Kentucky. In January, 1852, 
he entered the Military Institute near Frankfort, Kentucky. 
Graduating at this institution in June, 1855, he went to "Wash- 
ington City, where he found employment in the Bureau of Con- 
struction under the Secretary of the Treasury and the imme- 
diate charge of Major A. H. Bowman, U.S. Engineer. He was 
•assistant computer on the Treasury extension, and made the 
working drawings for the vault in the Treasury Building. 

On the 27th of June, 1856, he was appointed second lieutenant 
in the let L^.S. Cavalry, at the instance of Secretary 'Guthrie, 
and joined his company (H) at Lecompton, Kansas, in Septem- 
ber, remaining nearly two months in that Territory. He was 
then detailed on recruiting service, and stationed at New Albany, 
Indiana, where he remained until April, 1857, when he rejoined 
his command at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In May he joined 
the column under General Sumner, then colonel of the 1st U.S. 
'Cavalry, at a point very near Denver City, Colorado Territory. 
During this campaign he was distinguished by being the only 
white person in the command who killed an elk, — which he 
•did after a long and desperate struggle, and great personal 
-danger. 

After the return of the Cheyenne expedition in the fall. Lieu- 
tenant Long was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, during the 
•winters of 1857 and 1858, and was the first officer to escort the 
mail, in the month of December, 1858, to the crossing of the 
Arkansas River by the road to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a trip 
of nearly five hundred miles, for one hundred and fifty miles of 
which he was exceedingly ill, compelled to lie down in an 
^ambulance provided for him. He succeeded, however, in get- 



COLONEL ELI LONG. 211 

ting his command safely back to Fort Eiley, with the exception 
of six mules, most of which were frozen to death at night when 
tied up to the wagons. On one expedition his company was 
armed with Burnside's carbine, and he was oi'dered by the Ord- 
nance Department at Washington to make a report upon them, 
which he did, receiving a letter of thanks for his "excellent and 
intelligent report" from the Chief of Ordnance at "Washington. 
Changes and improvements were made in that arm in accordance 
with his suggestions; and those improvements appear on the 
Burnside's carbines issued by the Government at the present 
day. 

In Januarj'-, 1859, he made a march from Fort Riley of some 
two hundred and fifty miles through Kansas Territory, on which 
several teamsters and others — including himself — were frost- 
bitten, some of them severely. In the spring he marched, with 
a portion of his regiment, to the vicinity of the crossing of the 
Arkansas Elver by the Santa Fe road, where he formed a camp 
for the protection of the road, and remained there until the 
next fall, when the command, with the exception of Lieutenant 
Long and forty men, returned to Fort Riley. In the mean 
time war had broken out with tlie Kiowa Indians, and they had 
already killed some twelve of our people, including one lady 
and a mail-party, the most of whom were buried by Lieutenant 
Long, who was left behind with these forty men to escort two 
mails from Walnut Creek to the crossing of the Arkansas River, 
through the countrj^ of the Kiowas and the Comanches. This 
duty he performed, marching twenty-five miles per day for more 
than twenty days. Lieutenant Long was in command of his 
company upon an expedition to establish Fort AYise, Colorado 
Territory, and hauled the first load of timber to build thai post, 
— a work which was complimented by European papers. This 
post was built with hardlj'' any other implements or materials 
than those furnished by the woods and rock-beds. Here he 
remained until November, 1861, without any thing especial 
occurring except the capture by him in the summer of 1861, at 
a point some thirty miles southeast of Fort Wis<3, of a mounted 



212 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

and well-armed company of thirty-eight rebels en route from 
Denver City, Colorado Territory, to join Price in Missouri. They 
were taken completely by surprise. Lieutenant Long and forty- 
one of his men (dismounted) being within less than fifty feet of 
the party, with carbines cocked and at an aim, before they 
knew he had left the post. In this expedition he marched one 
hundred and twenty miles in thirty-two hours, with the loss 
of but one horse out of fifty-five, and captured fifty-two horses 
and mules. There were five or six murderers in the party, 
and a considerable number of horse-thieves, all of whom were 
safely lodged in jail at Denver City. When it is remembered 
that this party, had they not been apprehended, would probably 
have captured and destroyed two Government trains of un- 
guarded wagons, each loaded with ordnance and other stores, 
and worth from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred 
thousand dollars, en route to New Mexico, it will be acknow- 
ledged that it was a most important capture. In November, 
1861, he went to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and remained there 
with his command until the 10th of February, 1862, when it was 
ordered to report to General Buell in Kentucky. 

Arriving at Louisville about l^e 16th of February, Lieutenant 
Long served on Buell's escort until he was relieved by General 
Eosecrans. He was in the battle of Perryville until one o'clock 
in the day, when he was called in by General Buell. He was 
also with his regiment at the battle of Stone Eiver, where 
he was wounded, while at the head of his company, in the 
left arm. On the 22d of February, 1863, Lieutenant Long 
was appointed colonel of the 4th Ohio Cavalry, on the re- 
commendations of Generals Stanley and Eosecrans. Some 
two weeks after he took charge of the regiment, about two 
hundred men under his command, and a smaller number of 
the 3d Ohio Cavalry, defeated a brigade of rebel cavalry at 
Bradyville, Tennessee, his regiment taking fifty prisoners. 
Again, at Snow Hill, near Liberty, 'Tennessee, with about one 
hundred dismounted men of his regiment, Colonel Long de- 
feated a part of three regiments of rebel cavalry, killing and 



COLONEL WILLIAM B. STOKES. 213 

wounding several, and driving them more than a mile through 
a thick wood and across a winding ridge. 

In General Reynolds's late expedition to McMinnville, Colonel 
Long, in command of the 2d Cavalry Brigade, one hundred men 
of the 2d Kentucky Cavalry, and one company of the 1st Middle 
Tennessee, — in all about five hundred and fifty men, — burned a 
trestle-work on the Manchester & McMinnville Eailroad, seven 
miles from Manchester, and three or four others between that 
and the large trestle-work at Morrison's Station, including the 
latter; also a locomotive, a train of cars, and the railroad depot, 
marching over forty-five miles in one day, and capturing many 
rebel soldiers on the road. 



"William B. Stokes, colonel commanding the 1st Middle Ten- 
nessee Cavalry, was born in North Carolina in 1814, and i-emoved 
to Tennessee in 1818. He was raised a farmer, and has lived in 
the neighborhood of his present home — Liberty, De Kalb county 
— since his first settlement in the State. He has long been in 
public life, having twice represented his county in the Legisla- 
ture, and De Kalb and Wilson counties in the State Senate for 
one term. He has ever been a Whig in politics, and at the time 
South Carolina seceded he represented the fourth district of 
Tennessee in the United States Congress. When the war broke 
out, he took a decided stand for the Government, and has been 
an unconditional Union man ever since. He worked and spoke 
earnestly against separation, and was the only ex-member of 
Congress in Middle Tennessee who made a regular list of ap- 
pointments for public speaking and kept them until the very 
day of election. 

The State having seceded and his Congressional term having 
expired, he remained in private life until July 22, 1862, when 
he was commissioned colonel, with authority to raise a cavalry 



214 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

regiment. He had scarcely enlisted a single company when he 
was put on duty by the Government, and has been almost con- 
stantly in active service up to this time. His regiment was 
recruited rapidly, almost entirely in Middle Tennessee, and has 
rendered important service, particularly by furnishing a large 
proportion of the guides and scouts necessary for the various 
expeditions that are continually sent into the adjacent country. 
Colonel Stokes has been in many skirmishes and smaller engage- 
ments, routing Colonel Bennett's guerrillas in October last, and 
participating in the battle of Lavergne, and in General JSTegley's 
fight on tne Franklin pike, during the investment of Kashville. 
In the Stone Eiver battles, from first to last, he was actively 
engaged, making a remarkable charge upon a largely superior 
force of rebel cavalry under Wheeler, on Wednesday evening, 
December 31, driving them for the distance of a mile, killing 
many and capturing a large number of horses. Upon the retreat 
of the rebels, with his regiment he folloAved them eight or ten 
miles on the Manchester road, constantly and sharply skirmish- 
ing with their rear. 

On the 14th of March, 1863, ill health compelled him to resign 
his command, but, having again become able for duty, he was 
on the 16th of April, at the earnest request of his neighbors and 
friends and the men of his regiment, recommissioned, and again 
assumed command of his regiment. During the time he was 
out of the service, he accompanied Colonel Wilder on his expe- 
dition to Snow Hill, camping one night within a mile of his own 
house. The next morning he proceeded thither with four or 
five men in the advance, and succeeded in capturing a number 
of rebel pickets who were breakfasting there. This was done 
by an ingenious device. One man was dressed in " butternut," 
and, advancing cautiously, beckoned to the rebel picket to come 
to him. Not suspecting any danger, he did it readily enough, 
and when he reached the place was quietly shown a naniber of 
concealed men and ordered to drop his gun. Resistance being 
useless, he had no alternative ; and this operation was repeated 
until the whole were secured. 



CAPTAIN ELMER OTIS. 215 

Colonel Stokes is but one of several thousand Tennesseeans in 
the Union service. Their patriotism is self-sacrificing, and allows 
nothing to stand in its way. For their country they have aban- 
doned their home, family, friends, fortune, — every thing. Es- 
caping from rebel despotism at the risk of their lives, they have 
shown their devotion to principle and their love of liberty by 
fighting for it. The services they have rendered, and are every 
day rendering, are invaluable. Their perfect knowledge of the 
country admirably fits them for guides and scouts ; and as such 
they are constantly employed with manifest advantage to the 
service. In every contest they have acquitted themselves cre- 
ditably ; and many have sealed their devotion to the Union by 
their blood. "When the history of this war is fully made up, no 
brighter page will be found than that on which is recorded the 
story of these loyal Tennesseeans, clinging to the Government 
and the faith of their fathers with a zeal and determination 
which cannot fail to excite the admiration of posterity. 



(Captain €hm ^tis. 

Captain Elmee Otis, of the 4th United States Cavalry, waa 
born February 27, 1830, in Westfield, Massachusetts, and was left 
an orphan at an early age. His grandparents moved to Hun- 
tington, Lorain county, Ohio, when he was three years old, where 
he was raised by them to work on a farm. In the beginning 
of 1849 he jH'OCured, by his own exertions, an appointment at 
West Point, through the influence of Hon. Joseph M. Eoot, M.C. 
of that district. He -graduated in 1853, in a class numbering 
fifty-two, and received a commission as brevet second lieutenant 
in the 1st United States Infantry. He served in Texas at 
difi'erent points until the middle of March, 1855, when he was 
promoted to a second lieutenancy in the 4th United States In- 
fantry, and ordered to join his regiment, then sei"ving in Oregon. 



216 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND- 

At this time four new regiments were being raised, two of 
cavalry and two of infantry. Having a partiality for cavalry 
service, he applied in person to President Pierce, and obtained 
the appointment of second lieutenant in the 1st United States 
Cavalry. He was promoted to a first lieutenancy on the 28th of 
February, 1856, and joined his company about the 1st of May 
the same year. Soon after he was detailed to take a company 
of recruits, belonging to the 1st Dragoons, to New Mexico, and 
marched them there, arriving with horses in good condition. 
He met their regiment about seventy miles from El Paso, turned 
over the recruits, and returned to Fort Leavenworth in October, 
and found himself detailed for recruiting service and ordered to 
proceed to Eock Island, Illinois, and open a rendezvous. He 
arrived there about the 1st of November, and remained until 
about the Ist of April, 1857, when he was ordered to return to 
his regiment at Fort Leavenworth, wher^ it was preparing for 
a trip across the plains. The company to which he belonged 
formed a part of the force under Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph E. 
Johnston, for running the southern boundary of Kansas, as well 
as to co-operate with other troops against the Indians. This 
expedition returned to Fort Leavenworth the last day of Oc- 
tober, and Lieutenant Otis remained in garrison during that 
winter, meanwhile making several small expeditions through 
Kansas with the object of preventing lawless bands from accom- 
plishing their raids for plunder, &c. On the 18th of March, 
1858, two companies of the 4th United States Cavalry were 
detailed upon the Utah expedition under the coramand of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Hoffmann. Lieutenant Otis's force was one of 
the companies detailed. He arrived at Fort Bridger, with 
supplies for the army, on the 9th of June. During this trip 
the command encountered several severe snow-storms, and on 
the morning of the 1st of May the snow was two feet four 
inches deep on a level. These two companies of Lieutenant 
Otis's regiment were the advance-guard of the army that marched 
into Salt Lake City. After making here several reconnoissances, 
the two companies started back on the 6th of August, and arrived 



CAPTAIN ELMER OTIS. 217 

at Fort Leavenworth on the 22d of October, having marched 
over three thousand miles in one year. 

About the Ist of May, 1859, Lieutenant Otis with his force 
started, under command of Major John Sedgwick, on an expe- 
dition against the Kiowa Indians, and chased the Indians all 
summer, but came up with only a small party, all of the war- 
riors of which were killed but two, and the squaws and children, 
together with about forty ponies and mules, were captured. 
During this summer, about the 1st of August, his command was 
ordered to establish and build Fort "Wise (now Fort Lyon), on 
the Upper Arkansas. He arrived in the vicinity about the 28th 
of same month, established the post, and commenced laying 
stone for the quarters and stables on the 1st day of September. 
By the end of the month the horses of the four companies were 
in good stone stables; and the last of October found the men in 
comfortable stone houses. 

Here Lieutenant Otis continued until the Ist of May, 1861, 
when he was promoted to a captaincy. About the same time he 
was left in command of the post, with six companies, and so 
remained until the 22d of November, when he received orders 
to take the two companies of the 4th United States Cavalry and 
proceed with them to "Washington. He left Fort Wise on the 
25th, and arrived at Fort Leavenworth the 18th of December. 
Here he reported to Major-General Hunter, and went into camp 
until further orders at Fort Leavenworth. On the 10th of Febru- 
ary he received orders to report to General Buell at Louisville, 
and from thence was sent to "West Point, at the mouth of 
Salt Eiver. 

About the middle of July, on his own application, General 
Buell assigned Captain Otis to duty, to report to Major Granger, 
at that time commanding the post of Louisville. He was then 
placed in command of Park Barracks. His regiment was sub- 
sequently the escort to General Buell, and accompanied him 
until he was relieved, in October last, by General Eosecrans. 
Captt»in Otis was during several months on General Buell's 
staff as chief of couriers. He immediately instituted a system 



218 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

of posts and relief stations connecting different points, somewhat 
upon the French courier system, and which he continued under 
the command of JVIajor-General Eosecrans. In this way he has 
sent despatches thirty-two miles in two and a half hours. 

Notwithstanding his position as chief of couriers. Captain 
Otis still retained command of his regiment. At Nashville he 
received authority to recruit from the volunteers to fill his 
thinned ranks. About the last of November, recruiting was 
commenced, and the regiment was filled up, and two more 
companies raised according to the new organization. He also 
obtained six hundred fresh horses, rearmed and equipped the 
whole regiment, and drilled his men very thoroughly. 

This regiment was employed in running all the courier lines 
of different posts of the army, and, besides, formed the escort 
of General Eosecrans until he arrived in front of Murfrees- 
borough. On the 4th of January, Captain Otis was ordered to 
report to General Stanley, chief of cavalry, and was relieved as 
chief of couriers upon his own application. 

For gallant conduct and valuable services during the battle 
of Stone Eiver, Captain Otis and his command were specially 
mentioned by the genei'al commanding. Since then he has been 
constantly in the field except during a short period of illness ; 
and his dashing, well-drilled cavalry, under General Stanley, 
have often made their mark upon the enemy. Captain Otis's 
record is an honorable one, showing years of active and zealous 
service in behalf of his country. 



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SKETCHES OF NOTABLE OFFICERS. 



William B. Hazen, Brigadier-General of Volunteei-s, was 
born in West Hartfoi-d, Windsor county, Yerniont, in the year 
1830. His father, Stillman Hazen, was a grandson of General 
Moses Hazen, a native of Connecticut, whose commission as 
brigadier-general bears the oldest date of any of that grade in 
the first Federal army of the Eevolution. He was early asso- 
ciated with Generals Ethan Allen and Israel Putnam in their 
public services; and the friendship of the families was further 
strengthened by the marrying of the father of the present 
General Hazen to a direct descendant of " Old Put." When the 
colonies had achieved their independence. General Hazen and 
his two brothers, both of whom held commands in the army, 
emigrated to Yermont and located there the land granted for 
their valued services. The parents of General Hazen removed 
to Hiram, Portage county, Ohio, in 1833, and settled upon the 
farm which they now occupy. Here a family of three sons and 
three daughters have been reared. The sons and a grandson — 
all of the family capable of bearing arms — are now officers in the 
Union army. General Hazen was reared a farmer, receiving 
such an education as the limited means of his parents could 
command, until nearly twenty-one years of age, when, after 
much fruitless effort, he obtained the appointment of cadet at 
the national military school at West Point. At the time of 
entering this institution — in September, 1851 — he was within two 

weeks of the limit which would have rejected him. In 1855 

219 



220 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

he graduated most creditably, and in July of the same year was 
appointed brevet second lieutenant 4th United States Infantry. 
Tavo months after this he was promoted second lieutenant in 
the 8th Infantry; but before informed of this promotion he had 
started to join his company in the 4th Infantry, then serving in 
California and Oregon. In October, the month of the commence- 
ment of the famous Indian wars of 1856, '57, he joined his com- 
pany at Fort Inge, on the head-waters of the Sacramento, and 
on the following day was leading his men to Fort Lane, Eouge 
Kiver, where the war had already become serious. Keeping 
the field during this campaign, he served creditably until April, 
1857, when he joined his new company in the 8th Infantry at 
Fort Davis, Texas. Here he was soon actively engaged with 
the Comanches of Western Texas. He commanded successfully 
in five fights, until, in December, 1859, in a hand-to-hand contest 
with the Indians, he received a dangerous wound, the ball passing 
through the left hand, entering the right side, and passing into 
the muscles of the back, Avhere' it yet remains. Eight days 
afterwards. Lieutenant Hazen with his little force reached the 
settlement of Western Texas; but it was not until February, 
1860, that, having submitted to repeated surgical operations, he 
was sufiiciently recovered to set out for the Northern States. 
This closed the uniformly successful Indian service of the subject 
of this notice. Enterprise in the conception and energy and 
capacity in the execution of his plans were sufficiently apparent 
to attract the notice of the commander-in-chief of the army, and 
he was upon four occasions complimented in general orders. 
General J. E. Johnston, then assistant inspector-general of the 
army, in his report of the inspection of Lieutenant Hazen's 
post, commended that officer's " activity, perseverance, and 
courage" in his successful expeditions against the Indians; and 
the people of Texas, upon the occasion of his departure, after 
receiving his wound, held a public meeting at San Antonio, and 
adopted resolutions expressing their sense of the importance of 
his services to the State, and presenting him an elegant sword. 
The resolutions were as follow : — 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM B. HAZEN. 221 

" Whereas, Lieutenant W. B. Hazen, U.S.A., in his services for the pro 
tection and defence of our Western frontier from the ravages of hostile 
Indians, by his uniformly prompt, timely, and determined action in their 
pursuit, by his deeds of marked daring and bravery in their encounter, — of 
which he bears the unmistakable evidence in a dangerous wound received 
in his last Indian engagement, and which for a time threatened to prove 
fatal, — and by his repeated success in the recovery and restoration to our 
suffering frontier settlers of their stolen property, has deservedly won the 
confidence, high esteem, and admiration of the people of Texas, and espe- 
cially of those upon the extreme frontier and of this community, and alike 
distinguished himself as a true and gallant officer, winning a high position 
in the army. 

" Resolved, That the thanks of this community and the entire frontier aie 
hereby tendered him. 

" Resolved, That as an evidence of our appreciation of his distinguishec 
services, and a token of our sympathy for his suffering and wounds, and as 
an acknowledgment of his noble gallantry, a sword be presented him. 

" Resolved, That a cppy of these proceedings be forwarded to the Secretary 
of War." 

In consequence of the wound mentioned, twelve months' leave 
of absence was granted Lieutenant Hazen, with permission to 
travel in Europe. The expirafion of that time found him with 
his arm still in a sling, but applying for duty; and in February, 
1861, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Infantry Tactics 
at West Point Military Academy. In that capacity he served 
until his entrance upon the volunteer service in the present war. 
In June, 1860, he had been brevetted first lieutenant for meri- 
torious services, and on the Ist of April, 1861, was promoted 
first lieutenant in the 8th Infantry. May 14, 1861, he was 
appointed captain of the 17th Infantry, but declined, having 
at the same time been promoted to a captaincy in his own 
regiment. 

At the breaking out of the rebellion, Captain Hazen could not 
remain contentedly from the field of active service, and made 
strenuous efforts to obtain a release from duty at West Point. 
His ability was recognized in his own State, and, when the call 
for the first three hundred thousand men was made, many gentle- 
men of influence were anxious to have him in the army of volun- 
teers which Ohio was then putting into the field. This influence 
availed, after the failure of his own efforts, and Captain Hazen 



222 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

was granted leave of absence to take command of the 4l8t Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was organized at Cleve- 
land; and when Colonel Hazen joined it for duty, September 15, 
1861, the enlistment of the men was not half accomplished. 
Taking it in this state, he conducted with a vigorous hand its 
recruiting, organization, and instruction, — assuming himself the 
entire schooling and drilling of the officers and sergeants until 
they were competent to instruct the men. 

Being ordered to Gallipolis, on the Ohio Eiver, then threatened 
by the rebels of Western Virginia, Colonel Hazen projected an 
important movement upon them at a point beyond the reach of 
the Union troops at that time in Virginia, but, although asking 
no force but his own regiment, failed to obtain permission of the 
department commander to m.arch into his territory. In De- 
cember, 1861, Colonel Hazen, with his command, joined the army 
then organizing at Louisville, Kentucky, under Major-General 
Buell. During these and subsequent marches and changes of 
station, the sj'stem of instruction of Colonel Hazen was care- 
fully attended to ; and when the regiment reached JSTashville, in 
February, 1862, each company officer could drill the battalion, 
and had been instructed in every duty pertaining to his position. 

On the 6th of January, 1862, General Hazen was placed by 
General Buell in command of the 19th Brigade of the Army of 
the Ohio, including his own regiment, and belonging to General 
Nelson's (4th) Division. The care and labor that had been 
bestowed upon his regiment was extended to the entire brigade 
now under his command. 

At the battle of Shiloh, April 7, 1862, Colonel Hazen acted 
a conspicuous part. His brigade, arriving upon the field at the 
conclusion of the first day's fight, was immediately put in line, 
and, with the rest of Nelson's division, moved upon the enemy at 
daylight. General Hazen's skirmishers opened the second day's 
fighting on the left of the army; and for an hour his brigade was 
engaged under a sharp fire before the action became general. 
During this time, being in advance of the other troops, he was 
obliged to protect his position from flank attack, which he did 



BRIGADTER-GENERAL WILLIAM B. HAZEN. 223 

Buccessfully, and finally led his brigade in so fierce a charge that, 
although one-third of the ofiicers and men were struck down 
before reaching the rebels, they forced back both of the enemy's 
lines, and captured a battery at the second line. During the 
subsequent operations of General Halleck at Corinth, and in the 
campaign of General Buell in Northern Mississippi and Alabama, 
Colonel Hazen served with his brigade. In the operations in 
Kentucky during the fall of 1862 his brigade performed many 
important services, driving the rebels sharply from Danville on 
the 12th of October. In the subsequent pursuit he was intrusted 
with the advance of General Crittenden's corps from Mount 
Vernon to London, — for eight days fighting with and driving 
Bragg's rear-guard through the passes of the mountains, until 
recalled from the pursuit. 

The prominent part taken by General Ilazen in the operations 
immediately preceding the battle of Stone Eiver, and in that 
struggle, have been presented to the public in every complete 
published account of them. From the time of leaving Nash- 
ville until the battle, his brigade was twice engaged with the 
enemy; and in the great contest he maintained through the 
day the position taken in the morning. The official acknow- 
ledgment of the brilliant service there rendered is contained in 
the report of General Eosecrans. It was nothing less than the 
protection of the left of the army from being turned under 
simultaneous attacks by superior forces in front and flank, and 
this at the critical period of the fight, when, the right wing and 
centre having been driven back, General Eosecrans was exerting 
every power to form a new line. On the 2d of January he com 
manded a portion of the troops that drove Breckinridge's men 
from the field. When the army took position at Murfreesborough 
after the battle. Colonel Hazen's brigade was selected to hold the 
town of Eeadyville, twelve miles from the army, on the extreme 
left, and the most dangerous post in the line. 

The subsistence for cavalry, artillery, and baggage-animals 
was drawn from the country in front; and, though this was con- 
stantly occupied by Morgan's and other cavalry forces, no loss 



224 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

was sustained. On the contrary, the enemy were constantly 
annoyed by expeditions against them, resulting in the capture 
of greater or less numbers of men and horses. On the 2d of 
April an expedition in command of General Hazen surprised 
a rebel camp at Woodbury, killing three and capturing about 
twenty-five men and horses, the entire baggage-train, with camp- 
equipage, &c., and dispersing the whole force. 

From these operations and those during the pursuit of Bragg 
in Kentucky, " Hazen's Brigade" is probably better known 
among the rebels than any other in the army. It has never 
been attacked, though the enemy has often had four times its 
strength within a day's march. Finally, the general, always 
daring, has never attempted to lead his men against the enemy 
and failed : the rebels have never seen the backs of his men. 

General Hazen received his commission as brigadier-general 
of United States Volunteers in April, 1863, after being three 
times nominated to the Senate by the President. He had for 
more than a year held a general's command, and had led it through 
two great battles and several minor operations. In treatment 
of subordinates, possessing in a remarkable degree the faculty 
of quickly and accurately judging the character and fitness of 
men, no one is kinder to those who make faithful effort to per- 
form their duties, whether successful or not, but there are none 
more severe with those who wilfully neglect their obligations. 
Understanding thoroughly every detail of official duty, there is 
no portion of a soldier's life too trivial to receive his attention. 
With a vigilance that during three years of active service has 
never left him a moment unprepared or liable to surprise, a 
quickness to perceive and readiness to strike a weak point, — 
with a hearty love of the flag his fathers fought for, and, in the 
discharge of duty, an honesty not to be tampered with, — Bri- 
gadier-General William B. Hazen gives high promise that his 
future service will increase in value with the enlargement of 
the means intrusted to his control. 



BRWADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM P. CARLIN. 225 



Srtfjiulier-dencral ^ulilliiim §. (Unrlin. 

Brigadier-Gteneral William P. CaIilin was born in Greene 
county, Illinois, ISTovember 24, 1829. In 1846, at the age of 
sixteen, he entered the United States Military Academy at "West 
Point, where he graduated in 1850. He was assigned to the 
Gth Regiment U.S. Infantry as brevet second lieutenant, and 
joined his company at Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory, in, 
October, 1850. In 1851 he was jjromoted to the second lieu- 
tenancy of Company II, Gth Infantry, then stationed at Fort 
Eipley, Minnesota. Nearly four years were passed at the latter 
post and in the Indian country. In October, 1854, his regiment 
was ordered to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where it remained 
till March, 1855, when it scouted over the Western plains on the 
Sioux Expedition under General Harney. Having passed 
through that expedition, he was stationed at Fort Laramie, JSTe- 
braska Territory, as quartermaster and commissary of the post,, 
and was occasionally in command of detachments and com- 
panies in expeditions against the Indians. In the summer of 
1857 he commanded a company in the expedition of Colonel 
Sumner against the Cheyenne Indians, who were defeated and 
routed in a battle on Solomon's Fork, Kansas Territory, August 
29, 1857. In September, 1857, he, with his company, was ordered; 
into Kansas to protect the legal voters at the October election. 
In the spring of 1858, the Gth Infantry was ordered to join the 
Utah Expedition under General A. S. Johnston, then encamped 
at Fort Bridger, Utah Territory. Lieutenant Carlin acted as; 
commissary of the regiment until its arrival near the North 
Platte Eiver, near Bridger's Pass of the Eocky Mountains, when 
he, with forty men, was selected by the commanding officer to. 
accompany the engineer company, under command of Lieutenant 
J. C. Duane, to open the road through that pass, to build bridges, 
ferries, &c. The regiment arrived at Fort Bridger about the 1st 
of August, 1858, when it was learned that the Mormon trouble 

15 



226 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

had been adjusted. The regiment then received orders to pro- 
ceed to California. The journey was resumed, and the regiment 
arrived at Benicia, California, on the 15th of November, 1858, 
having marched two thousand two hundred and fifty miles 
during the season, Lieutenant Carlin's company, after a rest 
of three weeks, proceeded north to the head of Eussian Eiver, 
and was stationed in that region of Indian country for eighteen 
months. For nine months of the time, Lieutenant Carlin was 
in command of Fort Bragg, a military post on the Pacific coast 
and on the Mendocino Indian Eeservation. From July, 1860, 
to September 1, Lieutenant Carlin — having been promoted to a 
captaincy on the 2d of March, 1860 — was on recruiting service 
for the Eegular Army. On the 15th of August, 1861, he was 
offered the colonelcy of the 38th Illinois Volunteers, which was 
:accepted. He had previously been elected lieutenant-colonel of 
a New York regiment, and had been proffered the lieutenant- 
colonelcy of an Iowa regiment, — which were declined, as he had 
intended if he entered the volunteer service to go with men 
from his native State. Immediately after organizing his regi- 
ment it was ordered to Ironton, Missouri, where Colonel Carlin 
.assumed command, being the senior officer present. The force 
consisted of the 21st, 33d, and 38th Eegiments Illinois Infantry, 
and four companies of the 1st Indiana Cavalry, About the 
14th of October, the rebel forces in Southeast Missouri made 
demonstrations of attack against Pilot Knob, and, as a prelimi- 
nary, attacked the guard at the Big Eiver bridge, on the Iron 
Mountain Eailroad. A large portion of the force under Colonel 
•Carlin being detailed to guard this railroad, his available 
force was not deemed sufficient to advance against the rebel 
forces, which had been concentrated, about the 15th of October, 
:at Fredericktown, twenty-one miles southeast of Pilot Knob, 
:and which were estimated at six thousand, under G-eneral Jef- 
ferson Thompson. General Fremont, commanding that depart- 
ment, being absent from St. Louis on his march for Springfield, 
Missouri, his adjutant-general. Captain McKeever, took the 
a-esponsibility of ordering the 8th Wisconsin Volunteers, and 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM P. CARLIN. 227 

part of the 24th Missouri Yohmteers, with four pieces of artillery, 
to reinforce Colonel Carlin at Pilot Knob. The last of these 
forces arrived at the Knob on the 18th of October, and it wa& 
Colonel Carlin's wish to march against the enemy on the day 
following; but, the officer in command of the artillery having 
insisted that it was necessary to drill his horses, it was decided 
to delay one day. The forces marched on the 20th of October, 
and arrived at Fredericktown on the morning of the 21st. 
But the rebels had very hastily retreated, in consequence of 
having received information of the movement against them from 
Cape Girardeau, under Colonel J. B. Plummer. Plummer had 
sent a despatch to Colonel Carlin, calling for reinforcements, 
which despatch was intercepted by Thompson, who, not expect- 
ing an attack from Carlin, supposed that its possession would 
prevent the command of the latter from co-operating with 
Plummer. Thompson finally concluded to attack Plummer, and 
returned to the vicinity of Fredericktown and commenced the 
battle. The rebels were totally routed, the forces of Carlin and 
Plummer having formed a junction at Fredericktown about an 
hour before the fight began. This defeat of Thompson destroyed 
the rebel power in Southeast Missouri, except at the post of 
New Madrid, which they held until caj)tured by General Pope 
in the spring of 1862. 

Soon after General Halleck assumed command of the Depart- 
ment of the Missouri he appointed Colonel Carlin commander 
of the district of Southeast Missouri, which position he held 
till March, 1862, when he was relieved by General Steele. Colo- 
nel Carlin next commanded a brigade, under General Steele, 
in the expedition into Arkansas, and marched as far as Jackson- 
port, when he was ordered with the 21st and 38th Illinois 
Volunteers to Corinth, Mississippi, via Cape Girardeau, Mis- 
souri. He made forced marches to Cape Girardeau, and embarked 
immediately for Hamburg Landing, where he arrived on the 24th 
of May. Joining General Pope's army, he was at Farmington 
when the rebels evacuated Corinth, and participated in the pur- 
suit of the enemy to Booneville, Mississippi. After returning 



228 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

from this pursuit, his command — a brigade of General Davis's 
division — formed part of an expedition towards Holly Springs, 
but was recalled before reaching that point, and till August was 
stationed in the vicinity of Jacinto, Mississippi. About the 10th 
of August, Colonel Carlin's brigade, with the remainder of the 
division, then under command of General E. B. Mitchell, was 
ordered to join Buell's army in Tennessee. Marching via luka, 
Eastport, Florence, Columbia, and Franklin, it arrived at Mur- 
freesborough, Tennessee, about the 1st of September. After a 
rest of a day or two, the command proceeded to Nashville, and 
thence to Louisville, by forced marches. From Louisville Colo- 
nel Carlin marched with Buell's army to Perryville, Kentucky, 
where he was engaged in the battle of October 8, 1862. Colonel 
Carlin's brigade distinguished itself in that battle, as will be 
seen by reference to the official reports of General Mitchell, 
commanding his division. General Gilbert, commanding the 
corps, and General Buell, commanding the army. Colonel Carlin 
continued his march to Crab Orchard, Kentucky, and from thence 
to Bowling Green, — where General Eosecrans assumed supreme 
command, — and subsequently to Nashville, Tennessee. When 
the army of General Eosecrans moved towards Murfreesborough, 
on the 2Gth of December, Colonel Carlin commanded the 2d 
Brigade of General Davis's division, which had a sharp engage- 
ment with the rebel cavalry, under General Wharton, at Knob 
Gap, near Nolensville. Colonel Carlin's brigade here charged a 
strong position of the enemy, held by artillery and dismounted 
cavalry, and gallantly carried the position, capturing one gun 
and a few prisoners. On the 30th of December his brigade had 
a severe engagement with the enemy near Murfreesborough. 
On the 31st it passed through the terrific engagement of that 
day, and continued before the enemy till their retreat on the 
night of the 3d of January. Colonel Carlin's command sufi'ered 
more severely during this series of engagements than any other 
in the army. The official reports of Brigadier-General Da^ is, 
commanding the division, and of General Eosecrans, commander- 
in-chief, afford sufficient evidence of the gallantry of that bri- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN REGIMENT AND ITS COLONEL. 229 

gade, consisting of the 21st and 38th Illinois, lOlst Ohio and 
15th Wisconsin, and the 2d Minnesota Battery. Colonel 
Carlin was, subsequently to the battle of Stone Eiver, pro- 
moted to the rank of brigadier-general, and still retains the 
command of his old brigade. 



W^e ^oimllmmn Slejgimcnt ami its (Holon^I. 

One regiment in the Army of the Cumberland — the 15th 
Wisconsin Volunteers — is composed entirely of Scandinavians, 
mostly Norwegians. With the exception of Company A, en- 
listed in Illinois, and Company K, from Minnesota and Iowa, 
the regiment was raised in the State whose name it bears. Its 
organization, which was effected about the 1st of October, 1861, 
was mainly due to the efforts of its colonel, Hans C. Heg. 

On the 2d of March, 1862, it left Camp Eandall, at Madison, 
Wisconsin, for the seat of war. Forming a part of the expe- 
dition against Island No. 10, it was the first regiment that landed 
on the Tennessee shore on the 8th of April. On the 31st of 
March, being yet quartered on transports, in company with the 
27th Illinois, under the command of Colonel (now General) Bu- 
ford, it started on an expedition against Union City, Tennessee, 
where there was a rebel force about fifteen hundred strong. 
The town and camp were completely surprised on the morning 
of April 1, and the rebels driven in every direction. Nearly one 
nundred horses and mules, several wagons, and all the camp- 
equipage were captured, without the loss of a man by the 
attacking party. On the 11th of June, eight companies of 
the regiment left Island No. 10 for Union City, and thence 
marched to Corinth and Jacinto, Mississippi, where they were 
attached to Colonel Carlin's brigade, in which they remained 
until recently. 



230 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Since the regiment joined Colonel Carlin's brigade, the his- 
tories of the two have been identical. It marched with Gene- 
ral Mitchel's division from luka, Mississippi, by way of Florence, 
Alabama, and joined Buell's army at Murfreesborough on the 
Ist of September. Continuing with the Army of the Ohio, it 
endured all the hardships of the rapid march to Louisville. 
Leaving that city on the 1st of October, it participated in the 
battle of Chaplin Hills (or Perryville) ; and Company B of the 
regiment, deployed as skirmishers, were the first to enter the 
village of P.erryville the morning after the engagement. Sub- 
sequently it took part in a skirmish near Lancaster, Kentucky, 
where a few of its men were slightly wounded. Reaching Nash- 
ville as a portion of General Eosecrans's army, it left that 
city on the 26th of December, as a part of General McCook's 
corps. On the same day, in company with the remainder of 
the brigade, it charged on a rebel battery at Knob Gap, and 
captured one gun and -carriage, four horses, and three prisoners. 
Colonel Heg being the first man to reach the gun. In the battle 
of Stone Eiver it played a conspicuous part, passing through 
that long and bloody contest with the cool courage and deter- 
mined valor that have ever characterized its action, winnincr 
encomiums from the brigade commandei', Colonel Carlin, and 
others, at the time. 

On the 29th of April, by command of General Eosecrans, it 
was transferred from the 2d to the 3d Brigade of the 1st Divi- 
sion, on which occasion the following order was issued by Bri- 
gadier-General Carlin : — 

"Special Order No. 2. 

"Head-Quarters 2d Brigade, 1st Division, 20th Army Corps, April 29,1863. 

" The general commanding the brigade has to regret that the interests of 
the service have induced Major-General Rosecrans, commanding the depart- 
ment, to transfer the 15th Wisconsin Volunteers, Colonel Hans C. Heg, from 
this brigade. 

" In parting with this regiment, the general commanding tenders to both 
officers and men his sincere thanks for the soldierly and honorable manner 
in which they have conducted themselves on all occasions. In camp they 
have been obedient and faithful to duty, and on the battle-field they have 



THE SCANDINAVIAN REGIMENT AND ITS COLONEL. 231 

had no superiors in gallantry. Tliey may feel assured that they will carry 
"with them the best wishes of the general commanding and the other regi 
ments of this brigade. 

" By order of Brigadier-General W. P. Carlin, 

" Commanding 2d Brigade. 
" Samuel P. Voris, 
" Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General." 

Though the Scandinavians in this countiy now number about 
one hundred thousand, scattered through the various States of 
the Union, but mostly in the Northwest, the 15th Wisconsin is 
the only regiment of its kind in the service of the United States; 
and it is as especially representing this vast, enterprising, and 
rapidly increasing portion'of our population that it is worthy 
of notice. But, though it be the only regiment representative 
of their distinct nationality in the field, thousands of Scandina^ 
vians have joined our armies, and may be found in every regi- 
ment organized in the Northwest. They are among the best 
and bravest of our soldiers. Descendants of the sturdy vikings 
of medieval times, they have in the long lapse of years lost 
none of that daring valor, power of endurance, and remarkable 
coolness in times of excitement, which characterized their an- 
cestors. Next to bravery, their most marked quality is calm- 
ness. Always cool and collected, they act with the same delibe- 
ration and forethought in the trying hours of danger as in the 
transactions of every-day life. Temperate and virtuous, obe- 
■ dient and well disciplined, they are in every respect model 
soldiers, and challenge the admiration and respect of all whose 
good fortune it is to mingle with them. Long may they live 
to enjoy that freedom of speech and of thought for which they 
are so nobly contending ! And not less than America's own 
sons will they be honored in the days of returning peace, — 
wheij the sword shall once more be beaten into a ploughshare, 
and the spear into a pruning-hook. 

Hans C. Heg, Colonel of the 15th Wisconsin Volunteers, com- 
-nanding the 5th Brigade, Ist Division, 20th Army Corps, was 
born near tho city of Drammen, in Norway, December 21, 1829. 



232 ARMY OF T"HE CUMBERLAND. 

In 1840 his father, Evan H. Heg, came to Ameiica and settled 
near Milwaukee, "Wisconsin, being one of the first emigrants from 
ZSTorway to this country. In 1849 the subject of this sketch, 
then twenty years of age, proceeded to California by the over- 
land route, where he spent two years, returning in 1851. From 
that time until 1859 he resided near Milwaukee, engaging prin- 
cipally in farming and merchandising, and became one of the 
prominent business men of the State. In 1859 he was nomi- 
nated by the Eepublican State Convention of "Wisconsin for the 
office of State Prison Commissioner, and was elected by a large 
majority. This office he filled, with credit to himself and profit 
to the State, until he entered the service in 1861. That year 
Colonel Heg was nomin^ated for the same office by both the 
Union and Eepublican conventions; but he preferred to serve 
his adopted country in a different sphere, and called upon his 
countrymen to rally around his standard for the defence of the 
Union and the Government. "While yet in civil life, he was 
appointed by the Governor major of the 4^h Regiment of "Wis- 
consin State Militia, and in October, 1861, entered the service 
as colonel of the 15th "Wisconsin "Volunteers. 

Since that time his history is identified with that of the regi- 
ment. "With it he has served constantly and faithfully. Always 
at the head of his men, — the post of danger as well as of honor, 
— he has won their love and esteem by his cheerful participation 
in all their sufferings and privations. At the battle of Stone 
Eiver he was with his regiment from first to last, never despond- 
ing for a moment, even when affairs seemed most discouraging. 
His services there and elsewhere have not escaped the notice of 
his superiors, and he has been highly complimented in the official 
reports of General Carlin. He is now in a position where hia 
abilities as a military commander can be of even more se^'vice 
to the Government than heretofore, having on the 29th of April, 
1863, been assigned to the command of the 5th Brigade, 1st 
Division, 20th Army Corps, to which his regiment was at th« 
eame time transferred. 

Colonel Heg possesses the peculiar characteristics of his coun- 



COLONEL JOHN T. WILDER. 233 

trymen in a marked degree. His bravery, demonstrated in 
many engagements, is unquestioned. It is not, however, the 
reckless daring of an unskilled and careless man, but the cool 
and determined valor of a competent, thoughtful commander. 
He is prudent, but not timid; deliberate, but not slow in move- 
ment. In person he is of medium size, rather slender, and with 
features more than ordinarily prepossessing. "With the courage 
he has the power of endurance so natural to the Scandinavian, 
and is as well calculated to share the hardships and privations 
of a march as he is to direct the movements of his command. 



dolonel John W, WiMn, 

John T. "Wilder, Colonel of the 17th Indiana Infantry, com- 
manding the 1st Brigade of Mounted Eifles, was born in Ulster 
county, New York, in the year 1880. His is decidedly a fighting 
family. His great-grandfather, Seth "Wilder, lost a leg at Bunker 
Hill ; and his grandfather, Seth "Wilder, Jr., then sixteen years 
old, served in his father's stead, and participated in the battles of 
Saratoga, Monmouth, and Stony Point, in the latter of which 
he was wounded by a bayonet-thrust. In the "War of 1812 his 
father, Eeuben "Wilder, raised a company of light horse, and 
fought at Plattsburg and Sackets Harbor. He is still living, 
and, though lacking but a year of the allotted threescore and 
ten, his patriotism has not dimmed in the lapse of years, as is 
evidenced by the fact that he recently wrote from his home in 
Kingston, ISTew York, to his son, asking permission to come to 
Murfr^esborough and serve upon his stafi". 

The subject of our notice was educated as a civil and hydraulic 
engineer, and at the age of nineteen moved to Columbus, Ohio, 
where he remained three years. Eemoving in 1852 to Greens- 
(jurg, Indiana, he engaged in the machine and foundry business, 
ju conjunction with his more scientific professional pursuit of 



234 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

hydraulic engineering. In this he has been more extensively 
engaged than any other one man in the "West, — in almost every 
principal town of which he has built mills, both steam and water. 
His labors extended beyond the State of his residence to Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Western Virginia, and even Tennessee, in which he 
has constructed several mills, and where he now owns several 
hundred acres of land. His nine years of work may be thus 
summed up. He has built over one hundred mills, has sent en- 
gines (all built by contract) to every part of the "West, has con- 
structed several large hydraulic works, and has been granted three 
patents on turbine water-wheels. When the war broke out, his 
business was in a flourishing condition. He had become a 
proficient in hydraulics, and was recognized as an authority in 
such matters to so great an extent that he was sent for as a 
witness and to act as umpire from all parts of the country. In 
politics he had been a Democrat ; but when Mr. Lincoln was elected 
he fired a salute for him as his President, notwithstanding the 
objections of many of his brother Democrats. At the first sign 
of war he cast two steel six-pounder guns and donated them 
to the State. Artillery not being desired at that time, he inte- 
rested himself, and was mainly instrumental, in raising the first 
three-years regiment from the State, of which he was appointed 
lieutenant-colonel. 

Leaving his extensive shop and foundry, employing one 
hundred hands, — which, it may be remarked, is still in constant 
operation, — in charge of his foreman, he accompanied his regi- 
ment, then commanded by Colonel Haskell, to Western Vir- 
ginia. Lieutenant-Colonel Wilder, however, was in command 
at Cheat Mountain and Greenbrier, and in all the severe skir- 
mishes and fights under Generals Eeynolds and Eosecrans. His 
regiment, the 17th Indiana, killed John A. Washington, was 
very prominent in the repulse of Lee, and at Greenbrier covered 
the retreat of General Eeynolds, building, repairing, and main- 
taining the roads over which our forces moved. In December, 
1861, Colonel Wilder marched with his regiment to Louisville, 
and accompanied Buell's army through all its varied fortunes. 



COLONEL JOHN T. WILDER. 235 

Soon after the evacuation of Corinth he was taken ill with 
typhoid fever, and was compelled to absent himself from the 
field for nearly three months, the disease proving at one 
period nearly fatal. Soon after he recruited a company for his 
regiment, and also assisted in raising a regiment of thirty- 
days men, of whom six hundred and forty-one were enlisted 
during one day, to serve in Kentucky and repel the rebels at 
Henderson, — the same gang who had crossed into Indiana 
and had again recrossed the river. The men were raised, as 
stated, in less than twenty-four hours, and in forty-eight hours 
were armed, equipped, and in Kentucky, two hundred and 
sixty-five miles from Greensburg, Colonel Wilder accompanying 
them. 

In September, 1862, in command of less than four thousand 
men, — of whom only twenty -two hundred were fit for duty, — 
he made his memorable defence of Munfordsville, repulsing a 
desperate attack of the rebels, nearly ten thousand strong, 
under General Chalmers, and maintained himself until he was 
surrounded by a force of twenty-five thousand, with forty -five 
cannon, under the personal command of General Bragg. By 
this brilliant and gallant defence Colonel Wilder gained due 
credit as a gallant and determined officer in whom confidence 
could be placed in time of need. For two months he was a 
prisoner, when he was paroled, and went to Washington, where 
he procured an immediate exchange, and at once rejoined his 
regiment. 

When General Eosecrans assumed command of the Army of 
the Cumberland, Colonel Wilder was assigned to his present 
brigade, consisting of the 17th, 72d, and 75th Indiana, and the 
98th Illinois. In December he was stationed at Gallatin, Ten- 
nessee, and on the 17th of that month joined in the pursuit of 
Morgan on his last raid, in company with General Reynolds's 
division. After the battle of Stone River he escorted a train of 
one hundred and twenty wagons from Cave City to Nashville. 
Since then he has been constantly engaged in raids and expe- 
ditions through the country, scarcely having a day of rest from 



236 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

active service. Determining to mount bis brigade and thus 
beat Morgan at bis own game, Colonel Wilder began, with six 
horses, to caj^ture others for his men. On one expedition — the 
first — to Liberty and Lebanon he obtained some six hundred, on 
the second, about seven hundred, and on the third, five hundred 
and seventy-eight. Gradually others have been procured, and 
three regiments are already finely mounted; and before this is 
seen by the reader the fourth will, without doubt, be simi- 
larly fortunate. He has also procured an ample supply of fine 
mules for a battery of six rifled ten-pounder guns, also for 
one of four twelve-pounder mountain-howitzers; and this has 
been done without a dollar of expense to the Government. 
During the entire winter, and until the 1st of April, no corn or 
forage was drawn by this brigade for its animals, — they supply- 
ing themselves from the surrounding country. 

Colonel Wilder's brigade is an independent command, — and 
in more senses than oiie. It builds its own wagons, — ironing 
them from the wrecks of others scattered along the road, — 
shoes its own horses, and makes its own coal for its forges. 
Each man carries a hatchet with a handle two feet in length, 
— whence they have acquired the sobriquet of "The Hatchet 
Brigade." Their hatchets are described as handy and efi'ect- 
ive both in bivouac and in fight. Each company also makes 
for itself a fine mess-chest. Every teamster, cook, and extra- 
duty man in the brigade is a negro, and every white is an effect- 
ive soldier in the ranks. The colonel is a firm believer in the 
friendship and good will of the negroes. He relates numerous 
instances in which they have exhibited these qualities and 
rendered valuable service, among which is the following. 

Upon one of his expeditions, during a dark, rainy night, he was 
visited in his camp by a very black negro woman, about twenty 
years of age, and married,— the property of one HaAvkius, a 
large farmer living six miles from Lebanon, Tennessee. She had 
walked the whole distance to his camp — six miles — in the mud 
and rain for the purpose of telling him where there were several 
barrels of salt hidden behind her master's garden-fence, as well 



COLONEL JOHN T. 'WILDER. 237 

as to reveal the locality of a certain cave where were concealed 
a number of horses and mules and some guns. " I could not 
help bringing her in with me," said the colonel; and he added, 
"The negroes are our best friends." 

Colonel Wilder is emphatically what may be called a live 
man. He realizes the nature of the struggle in which we are 
engaged, and enters into the work with all his mind and 
strength. He believes in fighting, and plenty of it. Peace- 
upon-any-terms sticklers, and rebel sympathizers, meet with no 
sympathy from him. He was the first one to suggest the idea 
of having the soldiers appeal to their friends at home to unite 
in an earnest, hearty support of the administration in its eiforts 
to crush the rebellion. To this end he used his influence among 
the Democrats in the army; and they co-operated with him, — 
with what result is known to the whole loyal North. Pure 
patriotism has impelled him in his course. His whole time and 
energies are devoted to the work. In addition to his salary, he 
has expended over seven thousand dollars for the cause, — having 
equipped from sixty to seventy men at his own expense. Still 
in the prime of life, understanding the nature of the enemy 
with whom he is contending, fertile in invention, and prompt in 
execution, Colonel "Wilder and his mounted brigade cannot fail, 
in the days yet to come, to add largely to their already wide- 
spread reputation. 

The brigade is composed as follows : — the 17th Indiana, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Jordan, 72d Indiana, Colonel Miller, 75th In- 
diana, Colonel Eobinson, and the 98th Illinois, Colonel Funk- 
houser. It is called the First Mounted Eifles, and its services 
are in constant demand. Scarcely an expedition goes out of 
which it does not form a part; and wherever it goes it is sure to 
" make its mark." The rebels have learned to respect and fear 
it; and the name of its gallant leader has already become 
throughout the South a synonym for all that is bold and daring. 



238 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



Coloni?! WiWvm %, ^touijhton. 

Colonel William L. Stougiiton, 11th Michigan Yoltmteers, 
is a native of the State of New York, and was born March 2, 
1827. Moving with his family to Ohio in 1839, he was educated 
at Madison Seminary. In 1849 he went to Michigan, and on 
the completion of his legal studies was admitted to the bar, and 
practised law till the fall of 1861. For four years he was prose- 
cuting attorney of St. Joseph county, and had the reputation of 
being an able criminal lawyer. He was also a member, and one 
of the secretaries, of the National Eepublican Convention in 
1860, which nominated President Lincoln, and took an active 
l)art in the subsequent canvass. In the spring of 1861 he was 
appointed United States District Attorney for the district of 
Michignn, and held the office till the fall of that year, when he 
resigned, and accepted the appointment of lieutenant-colonel in 
the 11th Michigan Infantry, and in April, 1862, was appointed 
colonel. 

During the spring and summer of 1862 he was on duty in 
Tennessee and Kentucky. On the invasion of Kentucky by John 
Morgan in July, he was sent with the 11th Michigan to intercept 
him, if possible. He reached Cave City the next evening after 
Morgan's raid was known at Nashville, and made a forced march 
to Glasgow to attack him; but he had left five hours before the 
regiment arrived, and his command, being mounted on the best 
of stolen horses, escaped. From this point commenced the cele- 
brated chase of Morgan through the State of Kentucky, in 
which our infantry constantly pressed the marauder, driving him 
from every point, but unable to make him fight. After this 
he was ordered to Nashville with his regiment, where he was 
assigned to General Ncgley's division, and was in Nashville 
during the blockade. In the course of the siege he was sent by 
General Negley, with three regiments and one section of artillery, 
sixteen miles down the Cumberland Eiver, on a foraging expedi- 
tiou and rcconnoissance. When near Fort Eiley, the train was 



COLONEL J. W. BURKE. 239 

fired into by guerrillas, who were speedily put to flight. On 
reaching the road between the bluffs and the river, it was found 
to be cut away, leaving only a bridle-path, with trees felled 
across it to prevent the passage of wagons. With great labor 
the obstructions were removed, and the road bridged so as to 
allow the train to pass. On reaching the opposite side, the head 
of the train was again fired into by guerrillas; but they were 
repulsed and driven across the river, and an abundance of forage 
obtained. On the return of the train, the enemy made a spirited 
attack from a bend in the river opposite the bluffs, but were 
repulsed with the loss of sixteen killed and wounded. Colonel 
Stoughton was subsequently at the battle of Stone Eiver, — 
where he acted a gallant and conspicuous part, — and was ap- 
pointed provost-marshal of the post on the occupation of Mur- 
freesborough. This position he has filled with notable success. 



Mond J. m. 3mh, 

Of the 10th Ohio Yolunteer Infantry (Head-Quarters Guard), 
was born in "Westport, county Mayo, Ireland, in the year 1836, 
and was educated for the English service, in which four of his 
elder brothers had reached high rank and distinction. Politic- 
ally opposed to the Government and policy of Great Britain, 
and belonging to that class of young men whose genius and 
efforts in the cause of Irish nationality made the ill-timed Eevo- 
lution of 1848 celebrated, he abandoned all idea of serving in 
"•her Majesty's forces," and emigrated to the United States, 
where he devoted himself to the study of law, and practised 
his profession at the Cincinnati bar for three years before the 
breaking out of the war. 

He commenced his military career as chief of staff to General 
"William Lytle, commanding at Camp Harrison, and assisted that 
gallant officer in organizing some of the finest regiments Ohio 
sent into the field. Shortly after the call of the President for 



240 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

three-months troops, the Irish citizens of Cincinnati resolved to 
raise a regiment and send it to the field in defence of the Govern- 
ment. The Montgomery Eegiment (10th Ohio) was thus organ- 
ized, — composed mainly of this class of citizens, — counting 
among its officers some of the most promising and brilliant 
young men of the city. The regiment was commanded by 
Colonel (now General) William H. Lytle, — Colonel Burke enter- 
ing as major. The regiment was among the first to leave for 
the war in Western Virginia, and served under General McClel- 
lan during his short campaign, until General Eosecrans took 
command. 

Colonel Burke was put in command of an outpost, — a posi- 
tion requiring much tact and energy, — and soon gained the atten- 
tion and confidence of his keen-sighted general. His regiment 
was the advance-guard of General RoseCrans's forces when the 
army marched to the Gauley Eiver to engage the rebels under 
General Floyd, and distinguished itself highly at Carnifex Ferry, 
where it charged the works of the rebel general, mounting eight 
guns and defended by three thousand infantry. The brave 
Lytle was severely wounded within a few feet of the rebel 
redoubt, and the command of the regiment devolved upon 
Bui-ke, who fought his men with the utmost courage and obsti- 
nacy until night put an end to the contest, when the rebel general 
retreated in confusion, leaving his works and large quantities of 
stores, ammunition, and arms. 

The campaign in that region having been terminated by the 
expulsion of Floyd, Wise, and Lee, the regiment was ordered to 
Kentucky, and fell under the command of the lamented General 
Mitchel, serving with that officer in his brief but brilliant 
career in Northern Alabama. " The 10th" acquired the title 
of "the bloody 10th" at the battle of Carnifex Ferry; and the 
impression gained ground wherever they marched that it was 
composed of wild, lawless men: so that, it is said, citizens 
fled at the approach of the regiment, to return surprised that 
their horses and property were left unharmed. This impres- 
sion prevailed particularly in Huntsville, Alabama; and great 



COLONEL J. W. BURKE. 241 

was the consterDation among the citizens when Colonel Burke 
was announced as provost-marshal and his regiment as provost- 
guard. But the discipline and fine bearing of the regiment soon 
dispelled that impression. 

When the Federal forces under Buell followed Bragg into 
Kentucky, the "10th Ohio" was assigned to the division of 
General Eousseau, of McCook's corps, and at the battle of Perry- 
ville was honored with the advance of the army. The gallant 
bearing of the regiment at that fight formed a theme for the 
admiration of the country. It went into action with five hun- 
dred and twenty-eight men, and lost two hundred and sixty- 
three killed and wounded. Sui-rounded at one time by masses 
of the enemy, their numbers diminishing at every step, the regi- 
ment cleared its way to the point where a great portion of the 
line had fallen back and taken up the final position of the day. 
Immediately on General Eosecrans assuming the command of 
Buell's army, he assigned to the regiment the highly honorable 
position of Head-Quarters and Provost Guard to the Army of the 
Cumberland, — a compliment well deserved by the gallant fellows 
who followed him with such devotion in his earlier campaigns. 

At the battle of Stone River Colonel Burke and his command 
received the laborious and responsible task of keeping open the 
communications. Posted at Stewart's Creek, a short distance 
from the field, it protected large army-trains, rescued one from 
the rebel cavalry, — which it finally drove away, — kept open the 
line of communications, and returned to the army over two 
thousand stragglers who were found skulking to the rear. For 
these gallant services the general commanding publicly thanked 
Colonel Burke and his regiment, — an honor any ofilcer might 
well covet. He also received the following despatch from head- 
quarters : — 

"January 2, 1862, 8 o'clock a.m. 

" LiKUTENANT-CoLONEL BuRKE : 

" The general commanding instructs me to say that your despatch is re 
ceived, and that your conduct is highly gratifying to him. 
" Respectfully, yours, &c, 

"Frank S. Bo^d, A.D.C. 
" By command of Major-General W. S. Roseceans." 



242 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

In liis official report General Kosecrans says : — 

" The 10th Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, at Stewart's Creek, Lieutenant- 
Colonel J. AY. Burke commanding, deserve especial praise for the ability 
and spirit with which they held their post, defended our trains, secured 
their cars, chased away Wheeler's rebel cavalry, saving a large wagon- 
train, and arrested and retained in service some two thousand stragglers 
from the battle-field." 

The Special correspondent of the " Cincinnati Gazette," speak- 
ing of the gallantry of the regiment, pays it the following high 
compliment : — 

" To the heroic conduct of Colonel Burke at Stewart's Creek, where, with 
his unconquerable 10th Ohio, he so gallantly held his ground and repulsed 
the masses of Wheeler's rebel cavalry, is due the saving of an immense train 
of supplies, the loss of which, at a time when the army was reduced to 
horse-flesh and a scanty supply of hard crackers, might have been attended 
with the most disastrous consequences. Neither is it too much to say that 
his success, and that of Colonel Innes, of the Michigan Mechanics and Engi- 
neers, saved our army from an assault in the rear by the whole force of the 
enemy's cavalry." 

In a short sketch like the present it is impossible to do justrce 
to Colonel Burke and his brave men. The regiment, though 
decimated in number by its many fierce contests, has a well- 
earned reputation for discipline, dash, and fine appearance. 



THE DEAD OF OUR ARMY. 



We have concluded our sketches of the living ; and it is meet 
that we close this portion of the "Annals" with a tribute to the 
noble dead of the Army of the Cumberland. Fallen heroes ! — 
sleeping upon the banks of the lonely river, upon adjacent 
cotton-fields, and among the cedars which skirt its meandering 
waters, they yet live in the memories of their surviving com- 
rades. Unable to present their loved features in these pages, 
yet who of us who knew them so well can ever forget them ? 
Perhaps two thousand of our gallant band have " slept the sleep" 
upon the battle-fields of Stone Eiver, or have since languished 
and pined away unto death from wounds there received. Let 
the monument stand, an offering of the army and of the people, 
emblematic of their lineaments, their hei'oism, and their sacrifice. 

The following sketches of prominent officers slain at the battle 
of Stone Eiver, December 31, 1862, will be read with a deeper 
interest than any other chapter in this volume. 



Srijgadier-iSencntl Josltim ^oodroiu ^ill. 

(bT a lady contributor, CANANDAIGUA, new YORK.) 

Joshua Woodrow Sill, the youngest brigadier-general in the 
army, and the only Union general slain at Murfreesborough, was 
the second son of the Hon. Joseph Sill and Elizabeth, daughter 
of Joshua "Woodrow, of Hillsborough, Highland county, Ohio. 
He was born December 6, 1831, in the city of Chillicothe, where 

243 



244 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

his father — a native of Northeastern New York — has resided 
since the year 1814. 

Joshua's early education was watched over by his father, who 
spared from an active legal practice time necessary to give his 
son much instruction. As a child he was gentle, obedient, and 
studious; and before reaching the years of manhood he succeeded 
in mastering both rapidly and thoroughly some of the most ab- 
struse sciences, particularly mathematics ; while his proficiency 
in Latin and Greek, in standard English and French literature, 
gained for him the approbation and admiration of all. His 
father intended him for the legal profession ; but this he de- 
clined, and, at his own request, Avas in 1849 appointed a United 
States Cadet from the Chillicothe Congressional District. 

His life at West Point was remarkable only for the attention 
he bestowed on his studies and his strict performance of every 
required duty. He ranked among the first and best scholars, 
aud graduated third in his class. Chosen for an ordnance ap- 
pointment, he was in 1854 stationed at "Watervliet Arsenal, 
West Troy. The following year he was recalled to West Point 
as one of the instructors. Two years passed, and he was 
ordered to Pittsburg Arsenal, where for a few months, awaiting 
further orders, he occupied himself with drafting for and testing- 
ordnance. In May, 1858, he sailed for Yancouver, Washington 
Territory, to superintend the building of an arsenal there ; but 
the Vancouver Island difficulty with the British Government 
prevented its construction. In September he returned, and 
was again stationed at Watervliet, but a few months afterwards 
was ordered to Fort Leavenwo'rth. There his long-cherisifed 
intention of leaving the army took effect. Sill was willing to 
wield a sword when his country required it, but he could not 
endure the inactivity of army-life in times of peace. 

Early in the spring of 1860 he gave notice of resignation; 
and in September of that year he accepted the Professorship of 
Mathematics and Civil Engineering in the Brooklyn Collegiate 
and Polytechnic Institute, — a position he filled with distinguished 
ability. For a few months he seemed happy in his congerial 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSIIUA WOODROW SILL. 245 

occupation and duties ; but, as the time drew near when his re- 
signation must be either perfected or withdrawn, the threatening 
aspect of affairs greatly disturbed and engrossed him. Many of 
our ablest statesmen believed the peril of civil war would be 
averted. Sill sought, and finally accepted, the advice of reliable 
military friends, and perfected his resignation. Still he was not 
content : a presentiment that the time would soon (5ome when he 
must part from all the enjoyments of his new profession caused 
him anxious thought. The news of the bombardment of 
Sumter, flashing through the laud, startling and. firing the indig- 
nation of every patriot, found him calmly, quietly prepared. 
He resigned his professorship, and offered his services to the 
Governor of Ohio. In May, 1861, he was summoned to Colum- 
bus, and made assistant adjutant-general of the State, in which 
department he aided in the organization of the Ohio forces. In 
August, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 33d Ohio 
Volunteers. He accompanied Genei'al Nelson in his Eastern 
Kentucky expedition. After his return, his regiment being 
assigned to General Mitchel's division. Sill was placed in com- 
mand of a brigade. He was pi-omoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general, and confirmed by the United States Senate, July 29, 
1862. After the promotion of General Alexander McD. McCook 
to the rank of major-general and to the command of an army 
corps, Sill was assigned to the command of a division. This 
division he led with consummate skill and energy; and, although 
engaged in constant skirmishing with the enemy, such was his 
vigilance and dexterity that he sustained but trifling losses. 
Upon the reorganization of the army under Major-General Eose- 
crans, he was assigned to the command of a brigade in General 
Sheridan's division. He fell at the head of this brigade, with 
which he had three times checked the furious onset of the rebels 
upon our right wing on the disastrous Wednesday of the battle 
of Stone Eiver. 

Gifted with more than ordinary abilities, he had by unwearied 
and successful cxtlture trained them to a high degree of perfec- 
tion. The unsullied purity of his life was rare and admirable. 



246 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

He was geutle and sensitive to excess : yet in unswerving in- 
tegrity, cool practical sagacity, chivalrous courage, and unyield 
ing resolution, he vei-ified his title to the noblest attributes of 
manhood. 

It is an eloquent tribute that, when their brave leader fell, his 
men gave way to no shallow ebullition of sorrow. As the word 
passed down- the line, there ensued no disorder, no confusion. 
Moved as one man by one fierce impulse of vengeance, they 
pressed forward and crushed the enemy who had slain him. 

His loss, though keenly felt, should not be selfishly mourned. 
Through duteous self-sacrifice the brave, the gallant Sill has 
entered " the noble army of martyrs." 



(Koloncl Julius |. d5ar,t?srh£ 

Colonel Julius P. Garesche (Chief of Major-General Kose- 
crans's Staff) was born in Cuba, of American parents. He 
entered West Point at the age of sixteen, and graduated in 
1841, at twenty. He was married in 1849 to Miss He Laureal, 
of St. Louis. He served some years in Texas, and in Mexico 
during the war. During eight years previous to the rebellion he 
was on duty in "Washington City as assistant adjutant-general. 
Upon the commencement of the war he became anxious for 
active service. He declined, however, a commission as brigadier- 
general, — not wishing to accept such an appointment until he 
had won it on the field. He was made chief of staff to General 
Eosecrans upon the latter's taking command of the Department 
of the Cumberland, and immediately proceeded to the West and 
entered upon his duties. 

His life in the army has been one of work, and the services 
rendered by him to his fellow-officers and his country have been 
of the most important character. As chief of staff he was an 
invaluable aid to his commander, through his long experience 
and practical knowledge of martial affairs. Eemarkably well 



COLONEL JULIUS P. GARESCHE. 247 

vei;5ed ia military law as regarded matters of rank and customs, 
precedents of courts-martial, &c., his decisions were universally 
respected; and his published orders are yet spoken of, among 
our army officers, as models of correctness, precision, and elegance 
of diction. As a man, modest, unobtrusive, kindly to all, and 
easy of access to both high and low, — to the humblest private 
as well as to the bearer of the sword and epaulette, — he was 
loved by all, — all mourn his loss. 

A Washington corresj)ondent of the " National Intelligencer" 
thus alludes to Colonel Garesche : — 

*' On one of the days of battle before Murfreesborough, during a critical 
moment of the conflict, Colonel Julius P. Garesche, chief of General Rose- 
crans's staff, was killed. There are things connected with the life and cha- 
racter of this gentleman, and with the years of his residence in this city, 
which make it fitting to allude to his death more at length than we have 
heretofore done, and, in a few words of special reverence to his memory, to 
call the attention of our citizens to the loss they have suffered in his fall. 

" Of the high esteem in which he was held by the officers of the army 
nothing need be said. The grief expressed by his companions in the service 
sufficiently attests their appreciation of his stainless character and important 
services. His life in this city, to those who knew him best, seemed one 
continued act of charity. Prior to the war, when the duties of the Adjutant- 
General's office were not so pressing, his evening hours were almost in- 
variably devoted to visiting the poor and sick. He sought for them in their 
homes, learned the history of their lives, consoled them in sorrow, and 
administered to them when in want. He denied himself many of the sim- 
plest comforts of life that he might be better enabled to alleviate the suffer- 
ings of the unfortunate. In the exercise of his charity he was at all times 
delicate as a true gentleman, generous as a perfect Christian. There are 
incidents in his life, familiar to a few, of such great heroism of virtue as 
would win for him, if widely known, the applause of all men. One of these 
we will relate. He learned of a fttmily destitute of means and smitten with 
the small-pox. He visited them, finding the father beyond hope of recovery 
and one of the children dying. They were entirely deserted. Colonel 
Garesche visited them regularly, obtained for them the consolations of re- 
ligion, stood by the bedside of the man when death closed his sufferings, 
and held the dying child in his arms while the priest administered baptism. 
Nor was this all. He went to three different undertakers, and each one 
refused to assist him to bury the dead. He applied to the city authorities, 
and was referred to one who conducts pauper funerals. He obtained this 
man's services, but defrayed the burial-expenses himself, lest the feelings of 
the widow should be hurt if her husband was buried as a pauper at the 
city expense. When one who had a right to remonstrate chided him for this 



248 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

exposure of himself and his family, this Avas his simple answer: — 'I felt it 
to be my duty ; I could not help it.' 

" It was a splendid thing to die as he died,— suddenly, in the front of 
battle, in a deadly crisis of the day, fighting for a cause most pure and true : 
and it was proper that for such a man there should be reserved so grand a 
death. Yet in this there was nothing half so greatly heroic as the watchirg 
by the bedside and at the burial of that wretched victim of infeistion and 
the baptism of that smitten child. 

" He was one of the founders of the Society of St. Vincent of Paul in this 
city, and was at the time of his departure the president of one of its con- 
ferences. He was a man of simple, unaffected piety, and untiring in chari- 
table works. Those who knew him from youth never knew of him an evil 
deed or word. His wife and little ones, in their sudden bereavement, have 
the sincere sympathy of our citizens and of every ofBcer, of whatever rank, 
in the army, and also the "tears of many who in similar affliction found in 
him a consoler and a friend." 

The manner of the deatli of Lieutenant-Colonel Garesche is 
well known. He was by tlie side of his general during the 
storm, advising, cheering, and executing, orders. Calm yet 
courageous of heart, during that day he was observed, at an 
opportune moment, to retire to a private place, scan a page of 
his pocket-Bible, and to move his lips in prayer. He seemed, 
then, fearless of death : may Ave not say he was ready and Avilling 
to die for his country? Towards the middle of the day, while 
galloping over an open cotton-field upon a special mission, his 
head was blown away by a cannon-ball, a fragment of the lower 
jaw only remaining, his blood and brains being spattered over 
his attendants. Brigadier-General Hazen, one of the gallant 
spirits of that hour, and of the truly brave and pure of our 
arm}', thus writes : — . . 

"In Camp, Readyville, Tennessee, June 4, 18C3. 

"Author of ' the Annals.' 

" Dear Sir : — At your request I pen you a few lines respecting poor 
Garesche. AVhen killed, as you know, he was left just as he fell, there being 
no time then to give attention to the dead. About ten minutes after Colonel 
Gdddard informed me of his death, I chanced to pass the spot where he lay. 
He was alone, no soldier — dead nor living — near him. I saw but a headlesa 
trunk: an eddy of crimson foam had issued where his head should be. I at 
once recognized his figure, it lay so naturally, his right hand across his breast. 
As I approached, dismounted, and bent over him, the contraction of a muscle 
extended the hand slowly and slightly towards me. Taking hold of it, I 



COLONEL JULIUS P. GARESCHE. 249 

found it warm and lifelike. Upon one of the fingers was the class-ring, 
that (to me) beautiful talisman of our common school. This I removed ; 
and, also taking from his pocket his Bible, I then parted with all that re- 
mained of one who in life was my dearest friend, and possessed of tlie highest 
virtues that grace the brave and honest man. There was no time for tears. 
I soon after sent an aide-de-camp, with men, who carried the body through 
the shower of iron that ceased not to rain upon that spot during most of 
that day, to a place where, whatever might be the fate of battle, it would 
be recovered. Yours, very truly, 

" W. B. Hazen." 

The loss of Garesehe was a shock to the army and to the 
country. Being killed within a few feet of General Eosecrans, 
the event thereby assumed a peculiar significance, and no battle- 
field death of this war has occasioned more thought and remark. 
His remains were buried in a little graveyard which chanced 
to be near where he fell, and after a few days were raised and 
taken to Cincinnati. His funeral honors are thus mentioned by 
the Cincinnati " Commercial" of January 14, 1863 : — 

"Honors to Colonel Garesche. 

" The remains of this gallant oflBcer reached our city early yesterday morn- 
ing. The Young Men's Sodality received and escorted them to St. Xavier's 
Church, on Sycamore Street, where they were laid in state. 

" A magnificent requiem mass was chanted over the body, the brother of 
the deceased, Father Garesche, S.T., being the celebrant. Rev. C. O'Dris- 
coll, S.T., followed in a short panegyric. 

" Guards were posted during the day, and a stream of visitors continued 

until the body was removed. About five p.m. the escort to accompany it 

to tlie depot was formed, in the following order : — 

" Advance Guards. 

Band. 

Six companies of Infantry, in columns of platoons, with arms reversed. 

Hearse. 
Pall-bearers. 
Band. 
Young Men's Sodality. 
Carriages. 
" The procession was several squares in length, and, after a short detour, 
it proceeded to the Little Miami depot. The body will be forwarded imme- 
diately to the family of the departed hero, who reside in Washington City." 



250 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



Colonel Egberts, 42d Illinois Volunteers, commanding 3d 
Brigade, 3d Division, 20tli Army Corps, was born in Westchester 
county, Pennsylvania, October 2, 1833. After tlie necessary 
preparation, he entered the sophomore class at Yale College, 
and graduated in 1857. Adopting the law as his profession, he 
studied in his native county, where he was admitted to the bar, 
and continued to practise until the spring of 1859, when he 
removed to Chicago. There, while in the successful exercise of 
his profession, he determined to enter the army, and, in company 
with David Stuart, began recruiting for the 42d Eegiment Illi- 
nois Yolunteers. On the 22d of July he received his commission 
as major of the regiment, and on the 17th of September was 
elected lieutenant-colonel. Upon the death of Colonel Webb, 
December 24, 1861, he was chosen colonel. With his regiment 
Colonel Eobcrts took part in the well-known march of General 
Fremont to Springfield, after which the 42d went into quarters 
at Smithtown, Missouri. After the fall of Fort Donelson, the 
colonel proceeded with his regiment to Fort Holt, near Cairo, 
where he held command of the post, at that time garrisoned 
by the 42d Illinois, 8th Ohio, and a battery of the 2d Illinois 
Artillery. Thence he was ordered to Columbus, after its eva- 
cuation by the enemy, and next proceeded to Island No. 10, 
where he performed most valuable service during a night-expe- 
dition, in spiking a number of guns. 

Here Colonel Eoberts first made his mark, as one of the 
heroes of the army. Seeing that the boats could not pass the 
island unless the upper battery was silenced, the muzzles of the 
guns of which were but a few inches above the water, and which 
could have sunk any boat which might try to pass, he conceived 
the idea of spiking the guns. On the dark and stormy night 
of April 1, 1862, when almost a hui-ricane lashed the waters of 
the Mississippi, he embarked, with but forty men of his regi- 



COLONEL GEORGE W. ROBERTS. 251 

ment in five small boats, upon that perilous expedition. Its 
success is history. The regiment was next ordered to Fort 
Pillow, and from there accompanied General Pope up the Ten 
nessee and took part in the engagement at Farmington. He 
distinguished himself in that battle, where he with Company B, 
42d Illinois, covered the retreat. 

At the siege of Corinth he was in the advance, and was one 
of the first to enter the rebel fortification. In the pursuit 
of the rebels to Booneville and Baldwin he gained sj)ecial 
praise from General Posecrans for the rapidity with which he 
advanced. 

He then served under Brigadier-General Palmer, and marched 
fi-om Decatur to Nashville, in command of the 1st Brigade, 1st 
Division, of the Army of the Mississippi. Colonel Eoberts dis 
tinguished himself in several skirmishes with the rebels while 
intrusted with this command, particularly during the siege of 
Nashville and its bombardment, November 5, 1862, in which he 
repelled the enemy from every point assigned to him to defend. 
Wearied with garrison-life, he soon after applied to General 
Eosecrans for more active duty, and was ordered to report with 
his brigade to General Sheridan. On the morning of December 
30 he had the advance of the 20th Army Corps, and his skir- 
mishers drove the rebels to their breastworks. On the Slst his 
brigade fought most bravely, engaging two rebel divisions at 
once, — one in front and one on the right flank ; and not till a 
third division of the rebels came on his left flank and rear did 
his troops fall back.- He then changed front along the Wilkerson 
pike, and, while gallantly inspiring his men with his words and 
deeds, a fatal ball struck him, wounding him mortally. One in- 
cident is worthy of mention. While a rebel division (Cloborne's) 
wei'e driving some of our regiments before them, he asked per- 
mission from General Sheridan to charge upon the enemy, 
— which was granted. Galloping up before the 42d Illinois, he 
waved his cap and ordered them to fix bayonets. The men, filled 
with enthusiasm at this exhibition of bravery by their loved 
commander, rushed upon the rebel ranks with irresistible vehe- 



252 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

mence, and the enemy broke and fled in great confusion. The 
discomfiture of the rebel force at that moment was most oppor- 
tune. It delayed their renewed attack upon our right w'.ng for 
a considerable time, thus permitting the reforming of our broken 
columns, and, unquestionably, greatly contributed to stem tlie 
adverse tide of fortune, and to the achievement of the final 
victory. , 

Colonel Eoberts needs no further eulogy. He yet lives in the 
memory and affections of our army. 



(bT a contributor, tiffin, OHIO.) 

The 101st Eegiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry was organized 
under the call of the President for three hundred thousand addi- 
tional volunteers, in July, 1862, rendezvoused at Camp Mon- 
roeville, and was mustered into the service of the United States 
on the 30th of August, with Leander Stem, of Tiffin, as colonel. 
It was ordered to active duty in Kentucky on the 5th of Sep- 
tember, to assist in the defence of Cincinnati, then threatened 
by the rebel forces under command of General Kirby Smith. 

It was subsequently ordered to Louisville, and accompanied 
the army of General Buell in the pursuit of Bragg through 
Kentucky. The regiment was present at the battle of Perry- 
ville, and, in connection with the 31st Brigade, to which it was 
attached, took part in the splendid action of the division com- 
manded by General Mitch el. The coolness and courage exhi- 
bited by Colonel Stem on this occasion elicited high praise from 
bis superior officers, and gained for him the admiration and con- 
fidence of the men of his command. This regiment also took a 
prominent part in the bj-illiant engagement at Knob Gap on the 
first day of the advance of General Eosecrans from Nashville 



COLONEL LEANDER STEM. 253 

upon Murfreesborough. Here again the perfect self-possession 
and indomitable courage of Colonel Stem was the subject of 
general remark among the officers who witnessed his conduct, 
and of enthusiastic praise among the men of his regiment. 

The 101st was again hotly engaged at the battle of Stone 
River, where it suffered severely. Early in the morning of the 
31st of Decembei' — that disastrous day of battle — Colonel Stem 
fell, mortally wounded. His gallantry, conspicuous on all previous 
occasions, here shone out with uncommon excellence. He fell 
while cheering on his men, close to the loved colors of his regi- 
ment, lamented by his superior officers and by the officers and 
men of his command, who felt for him the most devoted attach- 
ment and chei'ish his memory with the most affectionate ten- 
derness. 

The great epochs of history have always been marked by 
singular contrasts. While, on the one hand, the heart of the 
philanthropist has been sickened by the corruption of partisan 
leaders and the desolation of war, on the other it has been 
cheered and strengthened by the patriotism and heroic courage 
of those who have stepped nobly forward between their country 
and its peril. This truth has been eminently exemplified in the 
present rebellion. While some have labored energetically to 
destroy the most beneficent civil Government ever organized, 
others have displayed the most disinterested patriotism and self- 
sacrifice in its defence. The subject of this sketch is a signal 
illustration. 

Colonel Leander. Stem was born in Carroll county, Maryland, 
and was the third son of Jacob Stem deceased. When our 
country and Government were assailed by treason and rebellion, 
he manifested an intense interest, not as a mere party politician, 
but as a true friend of humanity. For years his hearty sym- 
pathy with human rights had led him to fear for free institu- 
tions while witnessing the plotting of their enemies. He felt it 
his duty to enlist in the military service of his country, and was 
appointed colonel of the lOlst Eegiment of Ohio Yolunteer 
Infantry, and was with his regiment in the army, under the 



254 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

command of Major-General Eosecrans, at Nashville, Tennessee. 
He was wounded and captured at the battle of Stone Eiver, or. 
the 31st of December, 1862, and died at JMurfreesborough, in a 
rebel hospital, January 6, 1863. 

At the time he fell, his regiment was surrounded on three 
sides by the enemy, and was the last of the brigade to retire 
from the field. His last words on the field, while endeavoring 
to rally his men, were, " Stand by your colors, boys, for the 
honor of old Ohio !" 

Colonel Stem was a man of most pleasing and urbane deport- 
ment, and interesting and improving in his social intercourse. 
As a legal advocate he was successful, and prosecuted his pro- 
fession with acknowledged untiring industry. He will be missed 
and lamented the more for the gallant and heroic manner in 
which he offered himself up on the altar of his country. The 
following article from the Sandusky (Ohio) " Register," an- 
nouncing his death, is a truthful tribute to his memory : — 

" The death of Colonel Stem of the 101st Regiment, in the recent and 
terrible battle near Murfreesborough, is not one of the least important losses 
sustained in that bloody conflict. Though not a military man, unlearned in 
the art of war, he was a true man and a gentleman. 

" Respected, esteemed, and trusted by all who knew him in all the busi- 
ness and social relations of private life, he had become alike respected and 
trusted by the men composing his regiment. The manliness of his nature, 
the good sense and sound judgment which he displayed in the performance 
of his military duties, and the interest which he felt in the men under his 
command, had made him what a colonel should be, — both the commander and 
the friend. The 101st Regiment, in the death of Colonel Stem has suffered 
an irreparable loss. Yet doubtless the influence of his example and his life 
will long be felt by them. But if his loss be irreparable to them, what is it 
to his family and friends ? The hearts of the many who have suffered like 
bereavement only can estimate it. 

" Colonel Stem is another of the victims of the accursed treason and 
rebellion which so many are now engaged in covering with a cloak of ex- 
cuses and the drapery of palliation ! How many more victims shall yet fall, 
God only can tell 1" 



* THE DEPARTMENTS 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



A DAY AT HEAD-QUARTERS. 



The Army of the Cumberland we "will estimate, in round 
numbers, at fifty thousand men, — an extensive family, whose 
subsistence, discipline, and health are the daily care of its com- 
mander. 

We are encamped at Murfreesborough, — have been located' 
there for five full — but not solitary — months. Why so long a 
stay there ? involves a combination of answers which the author 
does not feel called upon to give as " in duty bound." But the 
reasons ai'e sound, as the result has shown. General Rosecrans 
moves when he is ready ; and he knows the full meaning of that 
word. In all his military movements, without a single excep- 
tion, he has made his " good ready," and by that sign has he 
conquered. In AVestern Yirginia, at luka and Corinth, Mis- 
sissippi, at jyiurfreesborough, and now upon his march into the 
vitals of central rebeldom, he prepared for victory, and so care- 
fully and practically, that he has not yet failed in his advance, 
nor has he lost a foot of the ground, thus gained, by a forced 
retreat. When he moves on, it is to conquer and to possess. 

Say you, good reader, that here is a digression, and that we 

are no further on in our chapter than Murfreesborough ? Not 

so. We do not propose to journey : we have aimed to " spend 

the day" at General Eosecraus's head-quarters with his bustling 

family. So sit you down, and, if it be your wont, fill up and light 

your pipe, ply your crochet, or unroll joxlv knitting, and let us 

witness a day of in-door army life and appreciate this stated 

preparation for victory. 

17- 25r 



258 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Let US first make ourselves masters of the position. Our 
army is drawn around Murfreesborough, in an elliptical circle, 
one and a half miles in diameter. Upon first entering the 
town, after the battle, this circle was much more extended, — 
say four miles in diameter, some of the division head-quarters 
being three miles from the court-house. This was needless; and 
the general commanding wisely reduced his lines, to avoid un- 
necessary travel, teaming, and picket-duty. So here we are, 
our divisions posted at every point of the compass from the 
court-house; and walk where we may, in any given direction, 
by day or by night, at the outer line of pickets (for we have 
town-pickets, street-patrol, &c. in addition) we are sure to bring 
up against a soldier, gun in hand, pacing his walk of fifty to two 
hundred feet, with a commanding " Halt !" And thus it is that 
iif those "boys" on picket but do their duty, nor man, nor dog, 
nor rabbit, hardly, can steal into or out from this devoted town. 
We may add that far beyond the general picket-line, on every 
Toa,d, lane, and field susceptible of approach, we have posted 
•cavalry pickets, singly, by groups, or in squads, as may be 
•deemed prudent : so that siirprise is impossible. 

Thiis surrounded by his great family, General Eosecrans has 
his head-quarters in the heart of the town. He has taken 
possession of the Keeble residence (if the author remembers the 
name correctly). It is a fine, two-story, country-town house, 
with a large, pretty garden attached. Its owner was a lawyer, 
■county clerk, and secessionist, and now holds a position in the 
rebel army. He fled with Bragg after the Stone Eiver defeat, 
during the memorable Saturday night, taking his wife and 
smallest children. The flight we know was sudden ; it could 
not have been in the least anticipated by him. for on the next 
Monday, upon our entering, his house was found filled with 
family goods, as though he and his had simply turned the key 
and gone upon a stay-over-night visit. Of course this was all 
•quite convenient, even to the kitchen-quarters, which shone with 
burnished stove-ware. Also gleamed there the ivories of a 
igroup of great and small Africans, mainly of the feminine 



A DAY AT HEAD-QUARTERS. 259 

gender. These were not quite so convenient, and were " sent to 
the rear." General Eosecrans and staff, who had been almost 
constantly in the rain and mud for ten days, now luxuriated 
upon white sheets and spring-mattresses, and " Philip," his 
steward, concocted dinners from army rations which were " fit 
to set before a king" in war-times. Truly, the "Yankee in- 
vaders" had arrived, and not only at this house, but at Colonel 
Rejftly's, — where General John H. Morgan had been married to 
his daughter, in the presence of Jefferson Davis, Bragg, Bishop 
Polk, and other rebel potentates, three weeks before, — and at 
the other best houses in the town. 

True, these " Yankees" had only come to the possession and 
enjoyment of their "rights," after all. This house is but a con- 
catenation of Yankeeism pure and (now) undefiled. Look 
about with us for a moment. It was planned by a " Yankee," 
or patterned after some pretty Northeim double-story-porch- 
and-wing. It was built by educated " Yankee" labor, we are 
sure. It is painted with Northern oil and lead. Every carpet 
comes from the land of " white slavery," as also the tasty window- 
curtains, the bedspreads, and the snowy pillow-cases. See you 
those genuine "Yankee" mirrors and elegant picture-frames 
and mantel-ornaments? And, alas! we " see ourselves as others 
see us," by reflection from those highly polished black marble 
fire-fronts, wrought by miserable Vermont " mudsills" from 
quarries away up under the shadows of the old Green Moun- 
tains. Why, the elegant chair you sit in, friend, and the sofas 
and tables and stands and what-nots before you, were manu- 
factured by low plebeians in the greasy town of Cincinnati; 
the clear white table-ware you notice spread out for dinner was 
sent here by some firm of sand-treading, clam-baking Jerseymen • 
while the knife and fork you may soon be invited to ply so 
industriously " grew," like Topsy, alongside of a counterfeit 
nutmeg, in some lowly vale of Connecticut. And open the 
carved doors of those showy library cases. Ah ! what a con- 
centration and intensity of Yankeeism ! The brain of a Kent 
and of a Story finely preserved in Massachusetts calf for 



260 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

KecblCj the glories of Irving and Bancroft and Wi/lis, gor- 
geously clothed in " purple and fine linen" and tipped with gold 
by enterprising Northern publishers. Here, there, upon every 
shelf, are stored emanations of Northern art and genius, almost 
heaven-born, so beautiful and rare are they, by which are 
brought to view the lights and shadows of far-away foreign 
lands, the images of grand old mountains and the flashings of 
darksome ocean-caves, the fire-flash and the roaming bufl'alo of 
the prairie, the thunders of Niagara, Titus breaching the walls 
of fated Jerusalem, the landing of Christianity and democracy 
from the Mayflower upon the lonely rock, and Angelo's grand 
conception of the Hesurrection. The possession of all this 
the creation of Yankeeism, adorning hundreds of mansions in 
the "sunny South," and relieving the tedium of many a lazy 
hour, is the boast, while the creators are the sneer, of a race 
of uncreative aristocrats. Yes, here, there, everywhere, is the 
sign of the "Yankee," — in every pane of glass and in every nail 
of this house " we live in ;" and where, then, the impropriety of 
the Yankee coming to his own ? 

Surely here has been another digression. But what then? 
— we are getting slowly on, and to step aside and pluck a 
fragrant flower now and then relieves the tedium of a journey. 
The preliminaries settled, we are ready to spend our " day at 
head-quarters." We are there at nine o'clock in the morning, 
— ^no sooner ; for the general arises at eight, and has just break- 
fasted. Ah ! rather slow, say you ? "Well, no, — considered in the 
abstract. Great men have great ways, or, at any rate, various 
ways. Franklin arose at four to make ready to harness the 
lightning and drive sky-high. Humboldt arrived at four hours 
of constitutional sleep along about midnight. Fcr contra, the 
grandest brains of an age have incubated in bed after late 
breakfast-hours, and the finest poem of a century was written 
upon a stale pillow at hours as late as eleven o'clock in the fore- 
noon. And there was Newton, who arrived at immortality just 
after an afternoon nap under an apple-tree. However, before 



A DAY AT HEAD-QUARTERS. lit)! 

"we conclude, we believe the " earliest bird" of a reader will Bot 
be severe upon our general's breakfast-hour. 

The day of our devotional genei-al commences, we are sure, 
with the morning prayer. This we have not seen, but, knowing 
him, we know it to be true. After breakfast the first business 
in order is the morning reports of any thing stirring " on the 
front" during the past dark hours. Then reports fx'om his 
chiefs of staif of what large matter on hand for to-day. Then 
comes the supervision and signing of important orders to corps 
commanders, or to the commanders of posts at Franklin, Nash- 
ville, and elsewhere. And now begin to flock in the daily round 
of visitors, — generals, colonels, and captains, upon this or that 
errand, or for verbal instructions. A heavy army contractor 
(perhaps heavy in a double sense) must confer with him^ — is |>ot 
satisfied with the views or decision of an underling. An old, 
rich planter is in trouble, and obsequiously squirms into the 
general's presence, unless, more likely, he has sent his wife, a 
sallow, plain, dejected-appearing woman. She was once, no 
doubt, a pretty Southern belle; but Southern flowers fade as 
eai'ly as they bloom. By this time there has assembled a crowd 
of people, — officers upon errands, sutlers in trouble, and women 
with children, and the distinct entity yclept "young ladies," all 
after passes, or the restoration of property or other " rights ;" 
and all desire a full conference with the general upon their tiny 
affairs, but are mainly attended to by his polite and excellent 
aids. 

Thus the busy work goes on, let us say, until two o'clock 
P.M., when the general and his staff officers, with perhaps some 
distinguished visitors from " abroad," will mount and take a 
view of the camps, inspect the progress of the fortifications, or 
call at the quarters of one of his sub-commanders. This is the 
gala-hour at head-quarters. They have excellent horses; and 
why not ? They are dressed very neatly, as they should be, — 
for then the general is " to be seen of men;" and we all know 
the value of good example. As he rides along the lines, where 
the troops are drilling by regiment or battalion, vociferous 



262 ARMY OF THE CUMLERLAND. 

cheering always greets him; and along the fortifications the 
same. For stretched all around him is a great army of men who 
love their commander as but few are loved, and he has shown 
a full return of affection for them, and that he is ever ready to 
do battle with them, and, if it is to be, to die by them. 

The dinner-hour at head-quarters is four o'clock p.m. That 
might seem rather after the " St. Nicholas" and " Continental" 
style. But then it is the supper-hour also, — two meals per day ; 
and thus the style is peculiar to our general. After dinner 
come a leisure hour and a siesta, a cigar and the daily papers. 
And as Sol marches flaming down the western slope, with his 
banner of light softly streaming in golden bars through the 
cedars and among the rocks of the yet torn and crumpled battle- 
fieW, and melts away beyond the forests which skirt the lonely 
river, the lamps are lighted; and now commences the second, 
and really the most important, half of the day. 

From this time until long past midnight a continued stream of 
business pours into head-quarters. A hundred letters and notes 
are to be dictated, or to be perused, studied, and answered. Reports 
of many kinds; of courts-martial, as to " family jars;" of provost- 
marshal's matters of trade, passes, and concerning refugees and 
deserters; of sub-commanders respecting the enemy's move- 
ments along their fronts; to hear a written report of some spy 
just come in, and, if important, to see and question the man ; 
to read and consider and answer telegrams from Nashville, 
Louisville, and "Washington, often of vast importance; to confer, 
privately, with one or a group of his generals, and occasionally 
to hold a gi-and council of them; to have a kind, fatherly talk 
in private with some brave but erring officer; to call an old 
favorite — perhaps General Thomas, the " Nestor" of the camps 
— into " his corner," wheel around his chair against intrusion, 
and, in an under-tone, submit some important fact or uncertain 
point, and ask for an opinion which he knows well how to value, 
— all this goes on, and much more ! Ah ! here are decisions 
being made and plans laid affecting the lives of hundreds, and 
perhaps of thousands, of human beings, — which involve, pos- 



A DAY AT HEAD-QUARTERS. 263 

eiblj, the fortunes of an army, the fate of a government, or 
even those liberties which are the natural birthright of a great 
people. 

While thus spending our day at head-quarters, good reader, 
you will be pleased to observe, we doubt not, the gentleness, 
almost quietness, which pervades the premises. The officers of 
staff, the visiting officers, and the secretaries, clerks, and order- 
lies in attendance, are neatly dressed, and are gentlemanly in 
their deportment. No shouting, nor loud talking, nor rude, 
boisterous laughter. An oath is rarely heard, — a loud one, never. 
The inordinate use of liquors is rarely noticeable, — is frowned 
upon. Due respect is paid to the Sabbath-day, the general 
attending his church-meeting invariably in the forenoon. We 
have not heard an angry word pass between members of this 
household during many months. Among the higher officers of 
our army, respect, confidence, and affection is the very general 
rule: the exception is rare. Especially has this been the case 
since the battle of Stone Eiver. That great furnace of affliction 
seemed to purify and bring together in closer bonds the Army 
of the Cumberland. Men's hates and ambitions, passions and 
vices, assumed at least a much milder form, as though all were 
living in perpetual remembrance of those awful hours and of 
the dead. And the private soldier was thus equally affected 
with the officer. Truly, after that trial we had a better army 
of better men. As with our army, so it will be with the nation : 
— the gold is purified by the refiner's fire. Meriting this great 
ti'ial as a people, we are being tried. And if we prove our- 
selves worthy of preservation, so will we be preserved, and 
will march on, higher and higher up the scale of national 
existence. 

" Like master like man," is the trite saying of olden time; and 
it holds equally well in the new. The pleasing results just stated 
are easily traceable to their source. A cursing and carousing 
commander-in-chief gathers around him kindred spirits. The 
Christian and the gentleman, when invested with might and 
power, surrounds himself with the good and the true, " whose 



264 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

ways are pleasantness and their paths peace." Such has been 
our path, you will concede, kind reader, during our day's visit 
at head-quarters. Let us now retire, presuming it to be three 
o'clock in the morning, — an average hour of retiring for our 
general during the past eight months. And, while retiring, 
will you not join with him in what you may be assured is his 
earnest prayer to God, that peace and unity may soon be 
restored to our beloved and distracted country ? 



§\u (Quartermaster's ie^aittment. 

The department of widest range in an army is that of the 
quartermaster. Upon its promptness and efficiency the success 
of all military operations in a great measure depends. The 
duties committed to its officers are most important, involving 
vast pecuniary responsibilities, and requiring for their faithful 
discharge the utmost energy and ability. The Quartermaster- 
General, in his late report, graphically and tersely sums up these 
duties as follows : — 

" Upon the faithful and able performance of the duties of the 
quartermaster an army depends for its ability to move. The 
least neglect or want of capacity on his part may foil the best- 
concerted measures and make the best-planned campaign im- 
practicable. The services of those employed in the great depots 
in which the clothing, transportation, horses, forage, and other 
supplies are provided, are no less essential to success and in- 
volve no less labor and responsibility than those of the officers 
who accompany the troops on their marches and are charged 
with the care and transportation of all the material essential to 
their health and efficiency. The quartermaster's department is 
charged with the duty of providing the means of transporta- 
tion by land and water for all the troops and all the material 
of war. It furnishes the horses for artillery and cavalry, and 
for the trains; supplies tents, camp and garrison equipage, 
forage, lumber, and all materials for camps; builds barracks, 
hospitals, wagons, ambulances; provides harness, except for 
artillery horses; builds or charters ships and steamers, docks 
and wharves ; constructs or repairs roads, bridges, and railroads; 
clothes the army; and is charged generally with the payment of 

all expenses attending military operations which are not ex- 

265 



266 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

presslj assigned by law or regulation to some other depart- 
ment." 

The business of the department naturally divides itself into 
three sub-departments, as follows : — 

1. Clothing, camj) and garrison equipage. 

2. Transportation by land and water, with all its means and 
supplies. 

3. Eegular and contingent supplies for the army and the 
department. 

The business which falls under the first head is immense; but 
only general statistics can be given with safety and propriety. 
Of tents, the regulations allow to each general in the field three ; 
to each staif oificer above the rank of captain, two ; to each cap-, 
tain or other staff oflEicer, one ; to every two subalterns of a com- 
pany, one; and to every fifteen foot or thirteen mounted men, 
one. The latter number are also entitled to two camp-kettles, 
five mess-pans, two hatchets, two axes, two pickaxes, and two 
spades. 

Each soldier is allowed a uniform amount of clothing as stated 
in the published table in the regulations, or, in lieu thereof, 
articles of equal value. One sash is allowed to each company 
for the first sergeant, and one knapsack, haversack, and can- 
teen to each enlisted man. Commanders of companies draw 
the clothing of their men, and the camp and garrison equipage 
for the officers and men of their company. Other officers draw 
their camp and garrison equipage upon their own receipts. 
When clothing is needed for the men, the company commander 
procures it from the quartermaster upon requisitions approved 
by the commanding officers. Clothing is usually drawn twice 
each year, but sometimes, in special cases, when necessary. The 
price at which each article of clothing is furnished is ascertained 
annually, and announced in orders from the War Department; 
and when any soldier has drawn more than the authorized 
allowance, the excess is charged upon his next muster-roll. 
Officers furnish their own clothing, but may purchase from the 
quartermaster, at the regulation prices, such articles as may be 



quartermaster's department. 267 

necessary for their own personal use, upon certifying to such 
fact. No oflicer's servant, however, unless a soldier, is allowed 
to draw or wear the uniform clothing issued to the troops, ex- 
cept under-clothing and shoes, of which, when there is no other 
means of procuring them, a reasonable supply may be purchased 
of the quartermaster upon the officer's certificate to that effect. 

Under the second division are included all the animals, 
wagons, ambulances, forage, steam and sail vessels, boats, rail- 
roads, and cars in use in the army. In the Army of the Cum- 
berland there are about three thousand wagons, most of which 
are six-mule teams. One wagon is allowed to each regiment, 
ten to the brigade, and in the batteries one to each gun. In 
addition to these regular trains, there are also several extras. 
In the order of mai'ch, one hundred wagons extend over a mile 
of road; and if all the wagons in this department were formed in 
one line, they would extend thirty miles. The number of ambu- 
lances is about six hundred. The horses and mules numbei 
about fifty thousand head. These are purchased at an average 
cost of one hundred and ten dollars for horses and one hundred 
and five dollars for mules, and are also impressed from the 
surrounding country. Within the last three months a great 
number have been obtained in this way, many of which have 
been used in mounting Colonel "Wilder's brigade. Three regi- 
ments have been furnished thus, and the work is still going 
on. Only about one-fourth of these are paid for, — disloyal citi- 
zens not being compensated therefor. Large as is the number 
taken by our forces, it has been greatly exceeded by the rebels, 
who from the beginning have supplied their armies by a system 
of most merciless impressment. The statistics of the losses of 
animals are not ascertainable. At the battle of Stone River it 
is estimated that over five hundred artillery horses were killed, 
and over one thousand belonging to the cavalry and wagon- 
trains. 

Twelve pounds of hay and ten pounds of grain constitute the 
daily ration of each horse or mule. The amount necessary to 
supply such an army as that of the Cumberland is almost 

/ 



268 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

beyond belief, and must be seen to be realized. At present 
(April 20, 18G3) the quartermaster has on hand some twenty- 
four thousand bales of hay and some two hundred thousand 
sacks of grain, stored away in houses and piled up out-of-doors. 
The hay costs at base of supplies about twenty-five dollars per 
ton, and corn one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel. 
For three months the army was entirely supplied with forage 
from the country in which it was quartered. For every thing 
thus taken receipts are to be given, and upon proof of loyalty 
the party holding a receipt is entitled to a voucher for the 
amount. In many cases, however, receipts are not given at all, 
or it is done in an impi'oper manner, or they are lost ; and the 
proportion really paid for will not exceed one-fourth of the 
whole. The average cost of the feed for each animal is about 
thirty cents per day. 

The railroad from Murfreesborough to Nashville is a military 
road, and is operated entirely by the Government superintend- 
ent and the quartermaster. All the freight for the army has 
been transported over it, and it has more than paid its way. 
Fifty car-loads — or three hundred tons — are daily brought to 
Mui'freesborough from Nashville. Over the Louisville & Nash- 
ville road, which is taxed to its utmost capacity in transjjorting 
Government freight, the regular rates are paid. The road from 
Murfreesborough to Nashville has been in constant operation 
since the 1st of March ; has been interrupted only once, when a 
train was captured and burned by the rebels. For passage 
and freight private persons pay regular rates. 

All steamboats are bought or chartered by the quartermaster. 
This branch of the business is mostlj' transacted at Louisville; 
but a number were purchased at Nashville, by the chief quarter- 
master, to be transformed into gunboats for the Cumberland 
River service. For this item alone an immense amount of 
money is expended, a large part of the supplies for the army 
having been brought to Nashville by river. 

The third division includes the regular and contingent sup- 
plies of the department,— hospitals, barracks, and quarters, iuel, 



quartermaster's department. 269 

stationery, secret service, and the numberless incidental ex- 
penses of the army. 

Of fuel the consumption is enormous. Since the 1st of 
January one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of coal have 
been received at Nashville. It is estimated that six hundred 
thousand bushels will be used there before the river rises, next 
winter; and this amount was contracted for, to be delivered 
before the water becomes too low for transportation. In this 
estimate the quantity needed to supply the two hundred and 
fifty forges in the field is not included. Since the army arrived 
at Nashville — November 1, 1862 — eighteen thousand cords of 
wood have also been consumed, and to this must be added the 
large forests that have been cut down and burned, of which no 
account is kept and for which no payment is made, and at least 
two hundred miles of fencing, mostly cedar rails. Board fences, 
and all lumber found in the country, are taken to make bunks, 
cots, and coffins. The coal costs at Nashville about fifteen cents 
per bushel, and the wood four dollars per cord. 

The quartermaster also furnishes the stationery used in every 
department of the ai"my, builds the warehouses at every post, 
repairs, refits, and furnishes all houses and offices for army use, 
provides all hardware and such building material as nails, glass, 
rope, &c., with all the machinery used, fits up hospitals for the 
sick, and furnishes coffins for the dead. He pays the mileage 
of officers, the expenses of courts-martial, the per diem of extra- 
duty men, postage on public service, the expenses incurred in 
pursuing and apprehending deserters, of the burials of officers 
and soldiers, of expresses, interpreters, veterinary surgeons, 
clerks, mechanics, laborers, and cooks. 

The secret service alone requires about ten thousand dollars 
per month. The Quartermaster's Department at Nashville em- 
ploys in the neighborhood of three thousand men as mechanics 
and laborers. These are engaged in shoeing horses, repairing 
wagons, making and repairing harness, and in divers other ways. 
Probably an equal number are similarly employed at Murfrees- 
borough. The wages of white teamsters are from twenty-five 



270 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

to thirty dollars per month. Negroes, or " coBtrabands," are 
paid ten dollars per month. The latter are generally familiar 
with the management of mules, and are preferred by wagon- 
masters to careless white drivers. By their use in this service 
alone, nearly four thousand effective men have been added to 
the ranks of this army, and forty thousand dollars per month 
saved on their wages. 

The policy in i-egard to the employment of negroes has been 
entirely changed. The principle now is, " keep all we get, and 
get all we can." Many of them are good mechanics and very 
shrewd. Negro women are worth five dollars per month to 
wash and work for the hospitals. In the performance of this 
labor their services are invaluable, and the Government can well 
afford to board and clothe them and their children. Cooks are 
allowed to each company ; and for this purpose negroes are also 
employed as fast as competent ones can be found. 

Still, the number of citizens necessarily employed in the differ- 
ent departments of an army is immense. Quartermasters, com- 
missaries, provost-marshals, provost-judges, and chiefs of police, 
if not themselves civilians, must have capable clerks who are, 
at wages varying from seventy-five to one hundred dollars per 
month. Then there are wagon-masters, agents, teamsters, 
scouts, and spies, all of whom come under the supervision and 
pay of the quartei*master. The money with which these pay- 
ments are made is sent to the chief quartermaster from the 
Treasury Department, in answer to his requisitions, which are 
sufficient in amount to meet the anticipated monthly expenses. 

Full monthly reports are made to the chief quartermaster, by 
the corps quartermasters and each quartermaster in the service, 
of the expenditures of that month and the requirements for the 
next. The system is an admirable one, enabling the head of 
the department to know at a glance the amount of expenditures, 
the amount of stores on hand, and the amount, both of money 
and stores, necessary to be supplied. Still, with all the care and 
system possible, the labors of the chief quartermaster are in- 
cessant. He must maintain a constant watch over the river and 



THE CHIEF QUARTERMASTER. 271 

railroad transportation, and anticipate every want of the army. 
With the commissary and the ordnance officers, he has to admi- 
nister the affairs of, and provide for, a city, as it were ; but upon 
him alone falls the duty of transporting the supplies and stores 
of the other two. 

When General Eosecrans assumed command of the Army of 
the Cumberland, it was destitute of nearly every thing. Now it 
is abundantly supplied, — better, pei'haps, than any other in the 
field. Nothing that could add to its health, comfort, or efficiency 
is wanting. Well clothed, fed, and paid, and well provided with 
camp equipage, it is in the best possible condition for effective 
service. This change, as gratifying as it is beneficial, is due 
mainly to the energy and perseverance of its chief quartermas- 
ter, seconded in all his efforts by the general commanding — by 
each of whom its value and importance are fully recognized. 



THE CHIEF QUARTEEMASTER. 

Lieutenant-Colonel John W. Taylor, Chief Quartermaster 
of the Army of the Cumberland, was born in Saratoga county. 
New York, February 22, 1817. His father— John W. Taylor- 
was for twenty years a member of Congress from the Saratoga 
district, and was twice Speaker of the House. He is well known 
in the history of the coliutry as one of the few who foresaw to 
what the country was tending through the continued agitation 
of the slavery question, and the disposition on the part of the 
South to make " the peculiar institution" supreme, and made 
the first speech in the House against the admission of Missouri 
as a State unless the question of slavery extension over free 
territory could thereby be permanently settled. 

Colonel Taylor removed to Hlinois in 1838, and has been a 
resident of the West since that time. At the time of enterincr 
the service, he resided in Dubuque, Iowa, where for several years 



272 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

he had been extensively engaged in business. In Northern 
Illinois and Iowa he is well and favorably known as an 
energetic, honorable business-man, and a gentleman of tasta 
and refinement. June 22, 1861, he was appointed assistant 
quartermaster, with the rank of captain, being the second 
appointment to the quartermaster's department of the volun- 
teer service. He was assigned to duty in the Western Depart- 
ment at Tipton, Missouri, then the principal interior depot of 
supplies for General Fremont's army. Thus Captain Taylor's 
first experience in the quartermaster's department was at this 
important post ; and the business was so well conducted as to 
call forth the commendation of 'Major Allen, the chief quarter- 
master of the department, and to induce General Pope, then in 
command of the District of Central Missoiiri, to relieve him 
from that duty and order him to report to him as his chief 
quartermaster, in which capacity he remained with him during 
the whole of that general's Western campaign. The efllciency 
of the Army of the Mississippi bears testimony to his energy, 
prudence, and foresight. 

When General Pope was ordered to Virginia and General 
Rosecrans was assigned to the command thus vacated. Captain 
Taylor was retained in his position. Upon General Eosecrans 
assuming command of the Army of the Cumberland, Captain 
Taylor, having gained the highest reputation for energy and 
efficiency in his department, was not permitted to leave Corinth 
until a peremptory order was issued from the War Department 
at Washington that he should be relieved and report to 
General Eosecrans. On the 13th of November, 1862, he was 
announced as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the 
Cumberland, and on the next day promoted to a lieutenant- 
colonelcy. Since his entry into the service he has, without the 
loss of a day, been on constant and laborious duty at his post. 

In the battles of Corinth and Stone Eiver he was constantly 
at the side of General Eosecrans, and the highest commendation 
of his coolness and bravery during the latter engagement is 
found in the fact that the commanding general, in his official 



ASSISTANT quartermaster's CLERK. 273 

report, gives him the place of honorable mention next to the 
lamented Colonel Garesche. The fact that, notwithstanding 
its great distance from the base of supplies, the frequent inter- 
ruption of railroad transportation, and the long period during 
which the Cumberland Eiver was unnavigable, the army has 
been so well supplied, reflects credit upon Colonel Taylor, ita 
chief quartermaster. 



THE ASSISTANT QUAETEEMASTER'S CLEEK. 

H. A. Hanson, Esq., has been the chief clerk and cashier o£" 
this department during the entire administration of Colojsiel 
Taylor, and, as a faithful, energetic, and most accommoda,ting 
official, merits brief mention in this connection. A native of 
Massachusetts, reared in the "Western States, and now residing 
at Dubuque, Iowa, he has mingled amidst the scenes of camps 
and shared their ills, excitements, and alarms, and has faithfully 
played his part in the drama of civil war, — keeping his accounts 
and disbursing vast amounts of money, monthly, to the general 
satisfaction of the army and the people. 



13 



N The Commissary Department is the great heart that sends 
the life-blood bounding through the veins of an array. Other 
departments are useful and necessary, but this is absolutely in- 
dispensable. To it the soldier looks for his daily food j without 
it no army could exist, no victories would be won. The wise 
commander will see that the haversack, not less than the car 
tridge-box, is well filled ; for the hungry soldier, however abun- 
dantly supplied with powder and ball, is lacking in the one great 
essential to success,— physical strength and endurance. The 
immense importance of such a bureau, sujiplj'ing the nerve and 
sinew of an army, caring fur the lives and health of thousands 
of men, and involving such vast consequences as the fate of a 
teattle or the result of a campaign, will be seen at a glance. Few 
of those inexperienced in military life, however, have any de- 
£nite conception of its practical workings; and it is with the 
•design of giving to the public an inside view of this department, 
:a8 it exists in the Army of the Cumberland, that it is made the 
epeciai subject of this chaj^ter. 

As remarked, the business of the Commissary Department is 
to supply the army with subsistence, or food. Of this subsistence 
the regulations pi-ovide that each man shall be entitled to a 
certain fixed amount daily, which amount is designated " a 
ration." Eations oonsist of beef, — salt and fresh, — pork, bacon, 
flour, pil-ot or hard bread, corn-meal, coffee, sugar, beans, peas, 
rice, hominy, molasses,, vinegar, soap, candles, and desiccated 
^vege tables- The latter are usually potatoes, cut, scalded, dried, 
and put up in barrels. When thus prepared they have very 
imuch the appearance of coarse corn-meal, and are used as a 
;preventive of ecurvy. Each day's ration — subsitstence for one 

274 



THE COMMISSARY DEPARTMENT. 275 

man — in bulk averages three pounds in weight. A ration of 
whiskey — one gill daily — is allowed in cases of excessive fatigue 
and exposure, but is issued only on special order. The negroes 
in camp also draAV rations, principally made up of bacon, corn- 
meal, and molasses. All of these rations, forming the entire 
subsistence of the army, are under the charge of the Chief 
Commissary, by whom the corps commissaries are supplied; and 
these in turn supply the division commissaries. Brigade officers 
draw from the division commissaries, and regimental from bri- 
gade officers. The men draw their rations by companies; and 
they are then divided among the messes. The cost of each 
ration at Murfreesborough, including transportation, is about 
twenty cents. 

All provisions are purchased by contract, proposals to furnish 
them having been invited by public advertisement. The salt 
meats and fresh beef for the Army of the Cumberland are 
brought from the north side of the Ohio River. About one 
hundred head of cattle are used per day; and they arrive in 
lots of some five hundred at a time. Those now at Murfrees- 
borough came from Chicago, and nearlj^ all that are used are 
from Illinois. The pilot-bread is chiefly made in Cincinnati, New 
Albany, St. Louis, and Chicago, and its average cost is about 
five cents per pound. The quartermaster provides transporta- 
tion for all subsistence from the place of delivery by the con- 
tractors, to the army, and the buildings in which to store it. 
The special duty of the commissary is to keep watch of the 
amounts on hand, maintain a full supply, and notify the quarter- 
master to furnish transportation and storehouses when needed. 
The supply of corn-meal is constantly kept up. Large quantities 
of the kiln-dried article are brought from the North, and a mill 
is constantly in operation at Murfreesborough manufacturing 
it. When in camp, the entire army is supplied with fresh bread 
three days out of five. On the march the hard bread is used 
exclusively. Each brigade is, as a general thing, supplied with 
portable bake-ovens, with all the necessary appliances, such as 
kneading-troughs, baking-pans, &c. The yeast used is made of 



27(3 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

hops an J. when they can be obtained, potatoes. Trpops who 
have been some time in the service make mud ovens, wherever 
they are camped, similar to those found in primitive settlements. 
Their construction is easy and simple, and when completed 
they answer every purpose of a larger and more pretentious 
structure. A pile of wood is built up to fix the size and shape 
of the oven, and braces are jDut across the top to prevent the 
roof from falling in. The whole is then plastered over and 
covered thickly with mud, the wood burned out, and the result 
is a good oven, which lasts much longer than one would suppose. 
The heat cracks it sometimes, it is true, but the cracks are 
speedily stopped with mud, and the whole is as good as new 
again. The advantages of these ovens can hardly be estimated; 
for nothing contributes more to the health and strength of an 
army than good bread. In an emergency, troops can subsist 
upon it alone. 

In camp each man consumes very nearly the whole of his 
rations. Whatever is saved by not drawing full rations is called 
the company savings, for which they are allowed a commutation 
in money. Each full company can save about fifteen dollars per 
month while in camp, and more when on the march, as but little 
over half the army ration is then consumed. The more active 
an army, the less the expense of transportation and subsistence; 
for the reason that men at leisure think more of their wants 
than they Avould if busily engaged. This is a matter of every- 
day experience with all classes of men. Any one who has ever 
travelled on a steamboat will acknowledge its truth at once. 
It is astonishing how little troops will sometimes subsist on 
when in active service. One of our generals recently re- 
iparked, in speaking of the retreat from Huntsville last year, 
that he did not see how his men lived. They had scarcely any 
rations at all,— just enough to call them such, — and yet were in 
fine health and spirits. This explains why armies that march 
Xh.^. SfiOBt have the least sickness. They eat less and exercise 
more. The food of a soldier is strong and hearty, and is in- 



THE COMMISSARY DEPARTMENT. 277 

tended to produce stout and healthy men ; hut in camp too much 
is eaten and too little done to insure good health. 

Of late, onions have been largely introduced as an article of 
food. These and potatoes are eagerly desired by the men, — so 
much so that if they could be constantly supplied with them 
they would be willing to forego one-fourth of their rations. 
Twenty thousand bushels of potatoes and ten thousand bushels 
of onions could be consumed in the Army of the Cumberland 
every month, with incalculable advantage to the men composing 
it. And yet, strange to say, they are so scarce that it is difficult, 
and at times impossible, to procure them in any thing like suffi- 
cient quantities. This, too, when the quarter of any county in 
the Ohio Yalley — say, five thousand acres — will grow enough 
to feed the entire army for a whole year. Potatoes cost now 
(in the latter part of April, 1863) one dollar a bushel, — the con- 
tract price at the Ohio River, — and onions two dollars a bushel. 
At these prices the farmer can produce no more profitable crop. 
It is estimated that from eight hundred to one thousand bushels 
of onions can be grown on a single acre, — which, even at one-half 
the present prices, would prove most remunerative to the pro- 
ducer. Forty acres, thus planted, could be easily cultivated by 
a few contrabands, and, with half the labor expended on the 
more usual crops, be made doubly and trebly more profitable. 
These suggestions are thrown out in the hope that they may 
meet the eye of some one who will appreciate their importance, 
and induce him to take some steps towards remedying the 
scarcity which has called them forth. These vegetables are 
necessary to the health of the soldier. Without them and 
others, scurvy will inevitably make its appearance and the effi- 
ciency of the army be totally destroyed. But, if the war con- 
tinues, the supply must be largely increased, or it will be abso- 
lutely impossible to furnish them, except in quantities too 
limited to be useful. Already prices have more than doubled, 
and are steadily increasing. The subject is worthy the attention 
of Northern farmers. The country is at war; and while the war 
continues, all the energies of the people should be directed to its 



278 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

prosecution. Such articles as are needed in the army should be 
produced to the exclusion of others, — especially when profit as 
well as patriotism prompts to such a course. 

But potatoes and onions are not the only vegetables that are, 
or can be, used with similar beneficial results. Beans have 
become a staple article of food. Some two hundred and fifty 
bushels are used daily in this army; and so great is the de- 
mand that the price has risen from seventy and eighty cents 
to two dollars and eighty-eight cents a bushel. Sourkrout and 
pickles are also excellent anti-scorbutics, and are issued pro rata 
in lieu of other things, when procurable. But there is always 
a deficiency of these articles. The people should see that more 
of them are put up, and that less is allowed to waste and rot. 
They, too, command a good price, and with a little care an 
abundant supply for the whole army could be furnished. An- 
other very excellent article, both common and cheap, is canned 
tomatoes. These can be used with great advantage at all times, 
and are especially desirable in hospitals. The necessarily coarse 
and substantial army fare, when long used and unvaried, wears 
upon the constitution and eventually breaks it down. These 
vegetables afford a variety, and prevent all injurious results, and 
thus save the lives of thousands of soldiers. The Government 
does every thing in its power to furnish a sufficient quantity; 
but upon the people at home the soldiers must mainl}^ depend for 
them. The demand will always exceed the supply, and, unless 
more of them are grown, prices will necessarily rule too high 
to make them as abundant in the army as could be wished. 

Other things being equal, the regiment that has the best cooks 
Avill be the healthiest and most effective. One o-ood cook is 
worth ten doctors; as may easily be seen by an examination and 
comparison of the diflPerent messes in camp. One of our Penn- 
sylvania regiments was especially noticed for the unusually 
healthy and contented appearance of the men. Inquiries re- 
vealed the fact that it w-as supplied with an excellent cook, 
whom the officers declared they would rather have than all the 
doctors in the army. This is a point which has been too much 



THE COMMISSARY BEPARTMENT. 279 

neglected, but is now coming to be better understood and appre- 
ciated. Many of the negroes who flock to the canips are fine 
cooks, and as such are very generally emj)loyed, to the manifest 
benefit of the men and an equal advantage to the service. 

The Commissary Department of the Army of the Cumber- 
land has been managed with signal ability. When General 
Eosecrans assumed command at Bowling Green, depots were 
at once established at that place. As it advanced towards 
Nashville, a depot was established at Mitchellstille, the then 
terminus of the railroad-route. When Nashville was reached, 
the supply of provisions was found to be scant, and immense 
quantities had to be transported by wagon-trains a distance of 
thirty-five miles. Even after the railroad was completed, this 
wagon-transportation was continued, and brought to the city 
large amounts of subsistence in addition to the many car- 
loads that came daily by rail. By earnest and unremitting 
efforts during the delay at Nashville, thirty days' provisions 
were accumulated, and the army began its advance towards 
Murfreesborough, which it could not have done without this 
supply. The battle of Stone Eiver and the period of rest 
necessarily following consumed nearly all of this stock, and new 
stores were gathered at Murfreesborough and Nashville. Taking 
advantage of the high water in the Cumberland, immense car- 
goes of every thing eatable were brought to Nashville and 
thence forwarded by rail to Murfreesborough. Many otherwise 
unoccupied houses in either city are filled from cellar to roof 
with commissary stores; and even then much of it is unhoused. 
The visitor at Murfreesborough is struck upon his arrival with 
the enormous piles of hard bread he sees near the depot. He 
has heard of a mountain of stuff, but never before so fully 
realized it. One mass is larger than a common two-story house, 
and around it are clustered other and smaller heaps, reminding 
him of the out-houses surrounding some stately mansion. Were 
all communication cut off with the North, the Army of the 
Cumberland, with the supply now on hand, together with what 
can be gathered from the surrownding country, could easily 



280 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

subsist itself for six months, and on short rations for a longer 
time. Such an accumulation inspires confidence in the masses 
of the soldiery. It tells of a foresight promising well for the 
future, and leaves no room for the disheartening influences 
■which invariably attend an uncertain and irregularly-supplied 
commissary. They know that all which can be done for them 
will be done; and, with such assurance, they will put their hands 
boldly to the musket and look not backward until the end of 
their march slfall have been reached. 



THE CHIEF OOMMISSAEY. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Simmons, Chief Commissary 
of the Army of the Cumberland, is a native of Pennsylvania, 
born in 1826. His residence is St. Louis, Missouri, and he is by 
profession a lawyer. He entered the service May 1, 1861. Ho 
was appointed by General Nathaniel Lyon chief commissary 
on his staff, with the rank of captain. For several months, 
however, Claiborne F. Jackson, the Governor of the State, re- 
fused to issue any commission to him, the raising of the Missouri 
volunteers being in opposition to the Governor's wishes. During 
the organization of these troops he was stationed at the St. Louis 
Arsenal, and remained there until January, 1862. He was then 
ordered to St. Charles, where he acted as quartermaster and 
commissary for the post and the district of Northern Missouri, 
supplying the troops along the railroads with subsistence. Here 
he remained until after the fall of Fort Donelson' when he was 
ordered to the latter place, and became connected with the army 
of Tennessee under General Grant. Accompanying it to Pitts- 
burg Landing, he was present at the battle of Shiloh, and until 
the evacuation of Corinth issued rations to three divisions of 
the army. Upon the assignment of General Eosecrans to the 
command vacated by General Pope, Captain Simmons was 



THE CHIEF COMMISSARY. 281 

ordered to report to the former, and by him was assigned to 
duty as chief commissary of the Army of the Mississippi. In 
this position he remained through the campaign in Northern 
Mississippi, and was present at the battles of luka and Corinth 
and in the pursuit to Eipley. "When General Eosecrans was 
ordered to the command of the Department of the Cumberland, 
Captain Simmons was retained on his staff as chief commissary, 
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

In his new department the duties devolving upon him were 
peculiarly onerous, owing to the disordered condition in which 
matters were found. The preceding account of the commissary 
department will show that its head sustains a responsibility 
hardly second to any in the army. At all times his services are 
very important, but in time of battle even more so, — if such a 
thing be possible. He must always be ready to issue when 
called upon, whether it be by day or nigj^t. He must also 
exercise a careful foresight with a view to meet contingen- 
cies of every kind. In short, it requires a peculiar talent, 
which every man does not possess, to become a practical, suc- 
cessful commissary. It is no small matter to cater for fifty 
thousand men and to so arrange that a full supply shall always 
be on hand. The efficiency and capability of the chief commis- 
sary of this army may well be inferred from the length of time 
he has held the position, and the universal satisfaction given by 
him, to which no word of comment need be added. 



This dej)artment of the Army of the Cumberland savois less 
of " villanous saltpetre" and the sword than others: yet without 
it an army would be grossly incomplete, and, but for the varied 
scenes of interest, of mirthfulness, and of sorrow there Avitnessed, 
camp-life would lose many of its rare concomitants, and the 
lesson of civil war would not be wholly learned. The provost- 
marshal is the social, internal regulator of the army. To him fifty 
thousand soldiers and the constantly changing crowd of citizens, 
strangers, and refugees throng for " passes" to go here and to go 
there. The entire trade of sutlers, merchants, cotton-dealers, 
and speculators of every name and kind comes beneath his 
notice and is subject to his " permit." Does a soldier commit 
an offence, or a trader sell liquor and other contraband goods ? 
his case is also submitted to this official. Drunkenness upon 
the streets and highways is rolled into his presence, and thence 
is sent to be duly reduced and sobered off within the purlieus 
of the guard-house. Horse-thieves and house-breakers, swindlers 
and tricksters, street-loafers and the entire genus of camp-fol- 
lowers are brought to him for justice; and usually it is meted 
out to them to the full measure of their deserts. 

And there, too, other and sadder scenes are of daily occur- 
rence. A fond father or doting mother has come from the far 
West to find some trace of a loved and lost one who has fallen 
beneath the weight of wounds or disease, and whose body is 
resting somewhere in the red soil of Tennessee, and now they 
ask permission to undertake the sorrowful search, and crave 
assistance therein. A refugee family, a destitute wife and half- 
clad little ones, have just come in from rebel-cursed regions; and 

they are cared for, and the husband and father, who is probably 
282 



THE PROVOST-MARSHAL GENERAL 6 DEPARTMENT. 283 

a soldier or laborer in the Union army, is to be found. A motley 
throng of men and women crowd his office-door, each awaiting 
an audience to tell the tale so common, — that a soldier has taktn 
the last horse or cow or pig, or has invaded the peaceful sanc- 
tity of the chicken-roost. And here comes a procession of Union 
refugees, men and boys, who have fled for their lives; have lain 
hidden among the hills, rocks, and cedars of Eastern and Middle 
Tennessee to avoid the merciless conscription of the Southern 
leaders. They have reached our outer picket-posts in the dark- 
ness of night, and have been forwarded to the provost-marshal, 
by whom their names and statements are taken and themselves 
sent to the refugee-barracks to find food, shelter, and employ- 
ment within our lines. 

But all is not sadness. The ludicrous treads closely after the 
scenes of sorrow ; and here we see still another procession enter- 
ing the streets of Murfreesborough. These are contrabands, 
and truly a motley group ; and they, too, are wending their way 
to the central dispensatory of army law and order. Negroes 
there are, big and little, old and young, in color black, blue- 
black, and yellowish tawny, or a mixture of all combined. 
They are on foot, and early travellers; for the dew has dampened 
the single coarse skirt of the negresses and their children, but 
not their ardor, and the dust of the road has adhered to the wet 
garment knee-high, giving a peculiarly expressive color to the 
fabric. The women invariably toil along with babies in their 
arms; the men and the larger boys and girls trudge past, laden 
with bundles of grotesque form and appearance ; Avhile the little 
picanninies mix in and patter on as would a flock of young 
quails in a wheat-field. Perhaps this scene is varied, the intel- 
ligent fugitives having borroioed " ole massa's" best horse, or mule, 
or yoke of cattle, and the large farm-wagon, in the night-time, 
and are coming in, bag and budget in hand, eyes shining and 
mouth agrin, and tattered duds flaunting in the breeze like 
banners on outer walls. These, likewise, are conducted by the 
guard in charge to that sanctuary of rest and fount of know- 
ledge, the office of the provost-marshal. 



284 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Let us etlge our way in at the door, and see what is to be seen 
within. Here is a special room, with clerks, and chairs, and 
desks, at one of which is seated the provost-marshal general, in 
the person of Major William M. Wiles. Perhaps — in fact, very 
probabl}^ — he is confronted by a number of elderly ladies and 
gentlemen who are so desirous of going beyond the lines to visit, 
to transact business, or to see sick children. They are peace- 
able, quiet folks, and have had nothing to do with this war. 
True, the ladies' husbands or sons are off in the rebel' army; 
but how arc they to blame for that ? they query. Or may-be a 
bevy of prettyish young ladies, fair Eves of the South, are 
awaiting his answer to their application for a pass to lovers in 
Dixie or to dry-goods stores in Nashville or Louisville, and 
upon his refusal, most courteous and proj^er, a thousand daggers 
flash from beneath indignant eyebrows, and emotional skirts 
and furbelows grandly sweep from the hateful Yankee presence! 
Or perhaps — oh, rare chance, indeed ! — the room may be empty 
of visitors; and then we will see the head of the department 
busily engaged in poinng over the voluminous papers of some 
intricate case that has been referred to him for examination and 
report. 

Passing into the next room, w^e see the rougher croAvd of 
speculators, sutlers, visitors, and soldiers, each one elbowing his 
way to the first assistant provost-marshal general, Captain 
Gosper, for a pass or a permit, or for authority to do something, 
to get something, or to see about something. A sutler wishes per- 
mission to replenish his stock with a hundred boxes of wine, of 
Avhich half will very probably be whiskey labelled " Heidseck" 
or " Sparkling Catawba." The captain glances up, character- 
istically strokes his beard, and intimates that a hundred boxes 
is rather a large supply, — enough to make a whole division drunk, 
much less a single regiment. 

" Oh, no ! It's a very harmless article, and very necessary. 
The oflScers must have it, they say. They are bilious, have 
fever and ague, are always dry, and want something for a *onic. 



THE PROVOST-MARSHAL GENERAL's DEPARTMENT. 2S5 

Here's their permit to sell it, and a recommendation for the 
shipment." 

The captain meditates, and perhaps the sutler gets his per- 
mit, and perhaps he does not : more probably the bill is cut 
down a half or a quarter, and the limited quantity is allowed to 
come, to the delight of his customers and to his own profit. A 
seedy-looking individual of the butternut species prays for a 
pass, says he is a non-combatant, " don't take neither side, — this 
a' n't his war, — was agin it at the start, but when he found the 
Union was destroyed was bound to jine the South, as he lived thar, 
— would have no objection to the old Union as 'it was,' " and so 
on, ad nauseam. He is summarily passed out-of-doors with the 
complimentary ejaculation, " He's a fraud." Some better-dressed 
representative of a former uppertendom seeks a similar favor, 
and presents a letter in which he is described as the soul of 
honor and integrity, but never a word said of his loyalty, — of 
which he very probably has not a spark in his composition; and 
ten chances to one he follows in the footsteps of his more 
illiterate predecessor. A soldier wishes to visit a neighboring 
camp, an officer is going to Nashville or Louisville, a citizen 
would like to visit the hospital; and so, with one and another, 
the captain and his clerks are busy the livelong day, listening, 
questioning, and writing. 

In still another apartment are other assistants and clerks, in 
charge of Second Assistant Provost-Marshal General Captain 
Goodwin. He is dealing with refugees and taking their names 
and statements, or questioning some disorderly soldier, or exa- 
mining the case of some refractory or thieving negro, or wringing 
unwilling truth from some suspicious native who has drifted or 
leaked into our lines as a spy. The several clerks are busy 
copying statements, filing affidavits, examining paj)ers, listening 
to complaints, or writing orders as dictated by their superiors. 
Every thing is life and activity, betokening the fact that here is 
neither time nor place for idle hands or minds. 

Attached to this department is the office of provost-judge, — a 
position not recognized by the regulations, but created by Gene- 



286 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

ral Rosecrans as a Becessary auxiliary to the provost-marshal. 
The labors and duties of its incumbent somewhat resemble those 
of a police justice in our larger cities. "Witnesses are sworn, 
papers examined and carefully preserved, and a regular docket 
is kept, in all cases involving the liberty or property of in- 
dividuals, for future reference and mutual justice and protection. 
At first a single person was sufficient to dispose of all business 
brought before this branch of the department; but it steadily 
and constantly increased from day to day, necessitating the 
appointment of a number of assistant judges, all of whom now 
find ample employment. 

All day long does the motley throng, which must be seen to 
be fully understood and appreciated, crowd the portals of the 
jH'Ovost's office ; nor do his labors cease upon the going down 
of the sun or when the Sabbath-day comes. The imperative 
calls of necessary business and the claims of suffering humanity 
alike render the duties of the provost-marshal general of our 
army, and those of his assistants, most varied, arduous, constant, 
and perplexing. The author has passed many hours there in 
Avitnessing scenes which he will ever remember, — scenes of the 
ludicrous and the saddening, of liveliest joy and deepest sorrow, 
of hope and of despair, the whole forming a moving mirror 
of all that attends battle-conflicts, deserted homes, %nd ruined 
families, and which, combined, present a grand, fearful' pano- 
rama of that civil war now raging in the midst of and con- 
suming a rebellious people. 

William M. Wiles, Major and Provost-Marshal General of 
the Army of the Cumberland, was born in Columbus, Bar- 
tholomew county, Indiana, August 29, 1836, and has ever since 
resided there. In June, 1861, soon after the breaking out of the 
rebellion, he relinquished a profitable copartnership in the drug- 
business, and in connection Avith a fellow-townsman, Isham Keith, 
—a gallant young hero who was killed at the battle of Perry- 
ville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862, — enlisted a company, of which 
be was chosen first lieutenant. After serving several months in 



THE PROVOST-MAESSAL GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT. 287 

the campaigns of Missouri and Arkansas, Keith was made major 
to fill a vacancy, and First Lieutenant Wiles became captain of 
his compan3^ He was detailed as aide-de-camp and provost- 
marshal general upon the staff of Major-General Eosecrans at 
Corinth, Mississij)pi, in May, 1862. In this position his services 
were so acceptable that he was retained in it upon the assign- 
ment of his general in-chief to the command of the Department 
of the Cumberland. He has passed through the heat of three 
tremendous battles — luka, Corinth, and Stone Elver — unharmed, 
but with imminent peril and several narrow escapes. His cool- 
ness and courage have been fully tested, and his ready business 
tact, coupled with an indomitable energy, admirably fit him for 
the position he occupies. Added to all is a fund of good humor 
and genial kindness which never fails him, even when most 
besieged by sleeve-pulling pertinacity or hai-assed by impor- 
tunate audacity, which would be remarkable in a philoso- 
pher of the oldest school, and is much more so in one whose 
years still verge upon the spring-time rather than the summer 
of life. 

Elias Cosper, Captain in the 74th Illinois Volunteers, and First 
Assistant Provost-Marshal General, is a native of Ohio, but 
resides in Eockford, Illinois. His age is thirty-nine. His busi- 
ness was that of a banker, which he surrendered at the call of 
duty, leaving a profitable position, an interesting family, and a 
delightful home. Failing health was about to compel him to 
leave the service, when his many friends induced him to accept 
his present position, to -which he was detailed November 14, 
1862. 

Egbert M. Goodwin, Captain in the 37th Indiana Volunteers, 
and Second Assistant Provost-Marshal General, was born in 
Franklin county, Indiana, in 1836. At the beginning of the war 
he was engaged in a lucrative law-practice, which he resigned, 
and enlisted as a private in a company forming in his county. 
On the organization of the company he was elected first lieu- 



288 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

* tenant, and afterwards succeeded to the captaincy. With his 
regiment he participated in the campaign of Generals Buell and 
Mitchel in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, during the spring 
and summer of 1862. Upon Buell's retreat, his regiment was 
left at Nashville, and remained there during the investment. In 
the battle of Stone Eiver he acted a gallant and conspicuous 
part. He was detailed to his present position February 22, 1863 



Wlxt Pdical gfprtmcnt. 

This chapter is appropriately introduced by the preceding 
illustration of the field-hospital at Murfreesborough, Tennessee. 
The cut is a faithful representation of the scene as taken from 
a distant stand-point : yet it fails to give — as would any single 
plate of its size and comprehensiveness — that vivid impression 
imparted to the visitor by a personal inspection, as he walks 
through the city of tents, with its broad streets, its alleys and 
walks, the streets neatly worked up and rounded at the centre. 
with gutters upon each side, and channels being also formed 
around each tent and house, and leading to main sluice-ways. 
Sidewalks of plank, cinders, gravel. &c. are laid along each 
sti-eet. The head-quarters' medical tents, the surgery, the house 
erected for hospital and sanitary stores, the post-office and 
news-depot, &e. occupy prominent positions lu the centre ofc^the 
village, from which the ground slopes away gently in every 
direction. Adjoining the hospital village on the west — for a 
village it is — is a garden comprising thirteen acres of rich bottom- 
land, which lies in a bend of Stone Eiver, in which, as we write, 
may be seen a vast amount of " garden-truck," half perfected, and 
most luxuriant in growth. The river sweeps along the front of 
the village, and its " levee" presents an animated scene, at most 
hours of the day, of negro servants washing clothing and bed- 
ding, others "packing" water to the town, droves of horses and 
mules from distant camps being led to the stream upon the 
opposite side, to drink, and a multitude of invalid soldiers walk- 
ing about, lounging upon the banks, angling, &c. 

During the month of May, 1863, this hospital accommodated 
an average of eleven hundred patients; and it has proven a great 
success. As the season advanced, the ill-ventilated store-build- 

19 289 



290 ARMY OF THE CtJMBEELANB- 

ings of !Murfreesborough became quite unsuitable for hospital 
purposes; and the benefit ensuing to the sick and wounded sol- 
dier from the cool and always fresh air of the clean, new tents 
was speedily apparent. This hospital was conceived and planned 
by the Medical Department of our army, and the grounds were 
thus scientifically laid out by the engineer corps of the Pioneer 
Brigade, all under the personal care and inspection of our 
humane and greatly interested commander-in-chief. 

During the battle-week at Stone Eiver, the Medical Depart- 
ment nobly sustained itself as an essential— in fact, vital — branch 
of the army. Eegimental and brigade surgeons invariably fol- 
lowed their commands on to the sanguinary fields, and many 
were taken prisoners while operating amid groups of the fallen. 
The ambulance-trains were notably well handled, being drawn 
up in lines, and, upon the cessation of hostilities in any given 
direction, were rushed in, loaded with our wounded, and hurried 
away to the general hospitals in the rear. As an instance of 
celerity and eflSciency, we may mention that within two hours 
after the battle of Friday evening, January 2, when Breckin- 
ridge's left wing was repulsed, our ambulance-trains had gathered 
the bounded, several hundred in number, by searching over up- 
wards of a hundred acres of ground, after dark, and had them 
in hospital. And we might add, further, that by eleven o'clock 
of that night our dead were all decently buried. 

The great American rebellion affords grand as well as ter- 
rible spectacles. The history of previous wars, of either ancient 
or modern times, presents no parallel to many features of the 
one now raging. We can especially instance one feature,— the 
humanity and tenderness of our nation for its wounded and 
enfeebled soldiers. Eaising of armies was not an only thought. 
The surgical case accompanied the sword, and the cartridge was 
no more plenteous than lint and bandage. Medical men of 
professional reputation and high social character abandoned 
home and business, and accompanied the youth of their section 
to the battle-field; while the noble women of the land labored 
in their behalf with energy and success commensurate with the 



THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. 291 

occasion. We need not dwell upon the fact — whicli has already- 
become Listoric — that never was there a war in which such 
magnificent military hospital preparations were made, and so 
faithfully carried into effect, as the one now upon us. 

The hall-hospitals at Nashville merit brief mention, as repre- 
sentative of that class which are located in buildings in cities 
and towns. The largest and best-ventilated store-buildings 
in the city were taken: if containing goods, they were at 
once vacated, and, where they were objectionable, partitions, 
shelving, &c. were removed. Walls were whitened, floors 
thoroughly scoured, and neat cot-bedsteads were made of suit- 
able height and ranged in exact lines through the long rooms. 
Comfortable beds were prepared, — blankets spread upon ticks 
filled with fresh straw, — with a soft pillow in a clean white slip. 
Spittoons, &c. were at each bedside; and the author has heard 
more than one sharp reprimand fall upon some thoughtless or 
careless wight who had lodged saliva upon the floors. Several 
hospitals of this character exist in Nashville at the time of this 
writing, and, no doubt, in many of our large cities and towns. 
By such means and efforts hundreds of valuable lives have been 
saved, — to the praise of the people of this nation, as represented 
by their various sanitary commissions, volunteer nurses, and the 
Army Medical Department. 

The surgeon who performs his duty faithfully and with skill 
occupies a laborious, difficult, and most responsible position. No 
less with him than with /the commander upon the battle-field, 
the lives of the soldiers are intrusted to his care. Hospital 
scenes, daily to be witnessed within the lines of the Cumber- 
land District, of faithful surgeons moving about at all hours of 
the day and night, examining, operating, dressing, prescribing, 
compounding, supplying delicacies, writing letters, breathing 
out to the afiiicted spiritual consolation and hope, receiving last 
messages, and, finally, closing the eyes in death — and, oh ! 
how many of such have been witnessed ! — have won for the 
Medical Department of our army the lasting affection and gra- 
titude of its members. Many names, thus eminent, could be 



292 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

cited in this connection ; but to do so, and necessarily of only 
a i^art, would be invidious, and we forbear. Kor is it incum- 
bent upon us to notice disreputable instances which may have 
occurred in this department, where fraud, intemperance, and 
professional murder can be charged to the wolves of the medi- 
cal fraternity. They have been but few — very few — in the Army 
of the Cumberland; and we pass them by. 

Those who witnessed surgical operations at the noted " Brick- 
house Hospital" during and after the battles of Stone Eiver 
will never forget many of those scenes. There were the head- 
quarters for cases requiring amputation ; and at times three 
tables were thus in requisition. Human limbs and pieces of 
flesh were cast outside of the house, through the windows, and, 
to use the words of a friend, "would fill a cart-load." The 
floors of the premises "ran rivers of blood," and the surgeons 
and attendants, in their dress and appearance, resembled 
butchers at work in the shambles. The long lines of graves, of 
both Union and rebel soldiers, now coursing down the sloping 
field in the rear of that " Brick-house Hospital," attest the 
many sad results of battle, in which these humane and skilful 
eiforts to save were unavailing. The picture we have drawn is 
harrowing to the soul ; but it needs be thus brought home that 
we may realize the deepest and most terrible ordeal of the army 
surgeon. 

The Medical Department comprises 159 surgeons, 260 assistant 
surgeons, 84 contract physicians. There were 2500 attendants, 
as stewards, clerks, cooks, and nurses, on duty in our 35 general 
hospitals. The patients usually numbered 13,000, which was 
augmented to more than 20,000 by the battle of Murfreesborough. 
Our army has about 500 ambulances. Dr. Eben vSwift, Surgeon 
U.S.A., until recently chief of the department, entered the army 
in 1847. He served during the Mexican War under General 
Scott, as aide to the surgeon-general, and established hospitals 
at Churubusco, Chapultepec, and at the city of Mexico. Since 
then he has been constantly on duty, and had charge of the 
Medical Department at the battle of Stone Eiver. 



In the history of warfare no changes are more remarkable 
than those wrought by the improvements in artillery. From 
the first rude cannon used, to those employed at Stone River, is 
a long stride; and it would be interesting to trace the grada- 
tions through which this feature of warfare has passed. But 
the limits of this chapter forbid; and we can only give a brief 
description of the various kinds of artillery in use in the Army 
of the Cumberland, and a sketch of two or three of the more 
prominent officers connected with that department. 

The importance of this arm of the service will be readily 
appreciated. Without it, in modern days, no battle worthy of 
the name has been or can be fought by an army. Upon its 
efficient management vast results depend; and yet outside of 
the army little is known concerning it. If the reader of this 
sketch shall obtain a clearer idea of the number and character 
of the guns us^d in one great battle, as well as of the kind, 
weight, and cost of the powder and projectiles expended, the 
object of the author will be fully attained. For prudential 
reasons, no reference will be made to the present condition of 
this department of the Army of the Cumberland; and the battle 
of Stone Eiver has been selected as the basis of remarks under 
this head. 

The artillery of the Department of the Cumberland, at the 

opening of the battle of Stone River, consisted of thii*ty-nine 

batteries, — heavy and field, — of which twenty-seven batteries of 

field-guns only were in the engagement. 

It was divided as follows : — 

293 



394 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

RIGHT WING. 

Chief of Artillery, Major Charles S. Cotter. 

\st Division — Chief of Artillery, Captain 0. F. Pinnet. 

5th Wisconsin Battery Captain 0. F. Pinney. 

2d Minnesota Battery Captain W. A. Hotchkiss. 

8th Wisconsin Battery Captain T. J. Carpenter. 

2d Division — Chief of Artillery, Captain W. P. Edgarton. 

E Company, 1st Ohio Artillery Captain W. P. Edgarton. 

5th Indiana Battery Captain P. Simonson. 

A Company, 1st Ohio Artillery 1st Lieutenant E. B. Belding. 

/ Zd Division — Chief of Artillery, Captain A. K. Bush. 

6 Company, 1st Missouri Artillery Captain H. Hescock. 

4th Indiana Battery. Captain A. K. Bpsh. 

C Company, 1st Illinois Artillery Captain C. Houghtaling. 

CENTRE. 

Chief of Artillery, Captain 0. H. Mack. 

Is^ Division — Chief of Artillery, Colonel C. 0. Loomis. 

let Kentucky Battery Captain D. C. Stone. 

Ist Michigan Battery Lieutenant G. W. Van Pelt. 

H Company, 5th Artillery, U.S.A 1st Lieutenant F. L. Guenther, 

2d Division — Chief of Artillery, Captain F. Schultz. 

M Company, 1st Ohio Artillery Captain F. Schultz. 

G Company, 1st Ohio Artillery 1st Lieut. Alexander Marshall. 

M Company, Ist Kentucky Artillery.. ..1st Lieut. A.A.Ellsworth. 

LEFT WING. 

Chief of Artillery, Captain John Mendenhall, U.S.A. 

1st Division — Cliief of Artillei-y, Major T. Race. 

10th Indiana Battery Captain J. B. Cox. 

8th Indiana Battery let. Lieut. George Estep. 

6th Ohio Battery Captain C. Bradley. 

2d Division — Chief of Artillery, Captain W. E. St and art. 

B Company, 1st Ohio Artillery Captain W. E. Standart 

M Company, 4th Artillery, U.S.A Ist Lieut. C. C. Parsons. 

H Company, 4th Artillery, U.S.A 1st Lieut. C. B. Throckmorton. 

F Company, 1st Ohio Artillery Captain D. T. Cockerill. 

M Division — Chief of Artillery, Captain George R. Swallow. 

7th Indiana Battery Captain G. R. Swallow. 



THE ARTILLERY SERVICE. 295 

3d Wisconsin Battery 1st Lieut. C. Livingston. 

26th Pennsylvania Batter^' 1st Lieut. A. J. Stevens. 

PIONEER BRIGADE. 
Chicago Board of Trade Battery Captain J. H. Stokes. 

CAVALRY DIVISION. 
D Company, 1st Ohio Artillery 2d Lieut. N. M. Newell. 

The armament was as follows : — 

RIGHT WING. 

Eleven James rifled guns. 

Seventeen six-pounders, smooth-bore. 

Ten twelve-pounder howitzers. 

Eight ten-pounder Parrott guns. 

Four twelve-pounder light (Napoleon) guns. 

CENTRE. 

Four James rifled guns. 

Three six-pounder smooth-bore guns. 

Four twelve-pounder howitzers. 

Twelve ten-pounder Parrott guns. 

Four twelve-pounder light (Napoleon) guns. 

Two six-pounder Wiard guns. 

Two twelve-pounder Wiard guns. 

LEFT WING. 

Six James rifled guns. 
Twelve six-pounder smooth-bore guns. 
Ten twelve-pounder howitzers. 
Sixteen ten-pounder Parrott guns. 
Four three-inch Rodman guns. 

PIONEER BRIGADE. 

Two James rifled guns. 

Four six-pounder smooth-bore guns. 

CAVALRY. 

Two three-inch Rodman guns. 

It will be observed that seven different kinds of cannon were 
used in this battle, viz. : — 

The twelve-pounder light gun. 



296 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

The eix-poundcr smooth-bore. 

" six-pounder James rifled gun. 

" three-inch Eodman rifled gun. 

" ten-pounder Parrott rifled gun. 

" Wiard rifled gun. 

" twelve-pounder field howitzer. 
The twelve-j)ounder is a smooth-bore gun, made of bronze, 
called ligld twelve-pounder to distinguish it from the old heavy 
twelve-pounder, upon which it is an improvement. It was 
modelled from the French gun, and was introduced into our 
service in 1857. The improvements were suggested by the 
present Emperor, and the piece is generally known as the 
Napoleon gun. Its range is about fifteen hundred yards. 

The six-pounder smooth-bore gun is the United States model 
of 1844, made of bronze, and previous to the present war was 
used in most of our field-batteries. Its range is about twelve 
hundred yards. 

The James rifled gun is the United States smooth-bore, rifled 
by G^eneral James, of Ehode Island. The original name — six- 
pounder — is still preserved, although the elongated projectile 
weighs eleven pounds.. James's invention refers more to the 
projectile than to the gun itself, his method of rifling presenting 
nothing that is new. The length of the projectile is twice its 
diameter, the front part conical, the rear portion made something 
like a loheel-hub, having a cylindrical cavity open towards the 
rear, and several cavities leading from this to the exterior, like 
the mortises of a hub which receive the spokes. A collar of 
lead encircles the exterior, and over this is a broad band of tin. 
The Avhole is covered by a wrapping of canvas steeped in oil. 
The projectile is made of such a size as to enter readily the bore 
of the piece. When the cartridge in the rear is ignited in 
firing, the expansive gases generated by the combustion of the 
powder enter the cylindrical cavity and the mortises of the 
projectile, and create a pressure against the wrapping, which 
yields, is forced into the grooves, and the projectile in its 
passage through the bore of the piece assumes the rifled motion. 



THE ARTILLERY SERVICE. 297 

The oiled canvas lubricates the grooves and prevents them 
from becoming "leaded." Its extreme range is about three 
thousand yards. 

The three-inch Eodman rifled gun is made of wrought iron 
and named after the inventor, Captain T. J. Eodman, United 
States Ordnance Corps. The projectiles used in it are generally 
the Hotchkiss and Schenkl. They are both elongated, with 
conical points. The former has a collar of lead encircling it 
near the base. The base consists of a cup-shaped piece of 
metal, which is driven forward by the force of the powder in 
firing; and the rim, entering between the projectile and the 
leaden collar, forces the latter into the grooves and secures the 
rifled motion. The Schenkl projectile is terminated in rear by 
a conical spindle, around which fits a cylinder of faster mache, 
which when driven forward by the explosion of the powder is 
forced into the grooves, and the rifled motion is communicated 
to the projectile. The extreme range of this gun is about five 
thousand yards. 

The ten-pounder Parrott rifled gun — named after the inventor, 
Captain R. P. Parrott, proprietor of the West Point Foundry, 
New York, and formerly an ofiicer of the army — is made of cast 
iron, with a band of wrought iron shrunk on around the rear 
portion of the gun, to strengthen it. Its projectile — also the 
invention of Captain Parrott — is made of cast iron, with a cup- 
shaped piece of wrought iron attached to the base of the cavity 
towards the rear. This cup is expanded into the groove by the 
force of the powder, and the rifled motion thus secured. The 
range is the same as that of the three-inch Eodman gun. 

The Wiard rifled gun — named also after the inventor — is 
made of steel. The same kind of projectiles are used as in the 
Eodman gun. The range of the six-pounder Wiard is very 
nearly the same as that of the ten-pounder Parrott. 

The twelve-ponnder howitzer is the United States model of 
14^41^ — a short bronze piece for throwing shells, case-shot, and 
canister. Its range is about one thousand yards. 

There were in all 20,307 projectiles thrown at the battle o^ 



298 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Stone Eiver. The average weight of metal in a projectile ia 
ten pounds, and the average charge of powder one and a half 
pounds. The entire weight of metal thrown was, therefore, 
203,070 pounds, and the quantity of powder 30,360^ pounds. 
Assuming seven cents as the average price per pound for the 
different projectiles, the cost would be $14,214.90. Twenty 
cents per pound for the powder would amount to S6,072,10 
Total, $20,287.00. This is taking the most economical view of 
the subject. 

In the battle of the 31st of December, 1862, the following 
guns were taken by the enemy : — 

8 James rifled. 

6 twelve-pounder howitzers. 

9 six-pounder smooth-bores. 
2 ten-pounder Parrotts. 

1 six-pounder Wiard. 

2 twelve-pounder Wiard. 
1 James rifled (disabled). 

Total, 29 

The following were captured from the enemy : — 

1 Napoleon. 

2 ten-pounder Parrotts. 

2 twelve-pounder howitzers. 
1 six-pounder smooth-bore. 

Total, 6 

With the foregoing interesting and instructive statistics, 
furnished for this work by the Chief of Artillery, we take leave 
of the subject. 



/ 

THE OHIEP OP ARTILLEEY. 

Colonel James Barnett, of the Ist Ohio Artillery, Chief 
of Artillery of the Department of the Cumberland, is a native 
of the State of New York, and is forty-two years of age. From 



THE CHIEF OF ARTILLERY. 29§ 

boyhood he has resided in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. He 
was educated to the hardware-trade, and for many years has 
been a member of the hardware jobbing-house of George 
Worthington & Co., of that city. 

At the beginning of the war he was in command of an inde- 
pendent artillery organization, and tendered its services to the 
State authorities. After the fall of Fort Sumter they were 
accepted, and on the 21st of April, 1861, the Governor of Ohio, 
by telegraph, ordered the command to report at Columbus. 
In accordance with this order. Captain Barnett, with a full 
company of men, and six guns, started the next morning, and, 
arriving at Columbus, proceeded, without halting, to Marietta, 
Ohio, where the guns were mounted, horses, &c. procured, and 
all fitted for service. Upon the occupation of Western Yirginia 
by the Federal troops, one section of this battery moved with 
Colonel Steadman, of the 14th Ohio, by way of Parkersburg, 
and two sections by way of Benwood, to Grafton. During the 
three-months campaign these guns were constantly on duty, at 
Grafton, Philippi, Laurel Hill, Carrick's Ford, and other points. 
At the expiration of their term of enlistment the command 
returned to Columbus, and were honorably mustered out of 
service in the month of July. 

In August it was decided to organize the 1st Ecgiment of 
Ohio Light Artillery, and Captain Barnett was commissioned as 
its colonel. This organization, consisting of twelve field-batte- 
ries of six guns and one hundred and fifty men each, was per- 
fected, and the regiment was fully equipped and put into the 
field by January 1, 1862. The colonel reported to General 
Buell at Louisville, and upon the arrival of the army at Nash- 
ville, in March, he was placed in command of the artillery 
reserve of the Army of the Ohio, in which capacity he. served 
until ordered to Ohio in July on recruiting service. Having 
obtained the requisite number of recruits for his regiment, he 
was assigned to duty in September upon the staff of General C. 
C. Gilbert, at that time commanding the centre corps of the 
Army of the Ohio. After the battle of Perryville the colonel 



300 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

was transferred to the staff of Major-General McCook as chief 
of artillery, which position he filled until November 24, 1862, 
when he was designated by General Eosecrans as chief of artil- 
lery for his department. 

In the battle of Stone Eiver, as well as in many previous 
ones, Colonel Barnett was constantly and actively engaged, and 
is mentioned with especial commendation by General Eosecrans 
in his official report. 



THE ARTILLERY CHIEF 01 THE 20TH CORPS. 

Major Charles S. Cotter, Chief of Artillery for the 20th 
Army Corps, is a native of Ohio, and was born September 20, 
1827. Before the war he followed the silver-plating trade, and 
was doing a prosperous business. He was also captain of an 
independent artillery company, consisting of one gun and 
twenty -five men. 

Hearing of the attack on Fort Sumter on Sunday, he closed 
his shop on Monday, and called a meeting of his company for 
the same evening. They voted to offer their services to the 
Government ; and on Tuesday Captain Cotter reported to 
Governor Dennison. Prom that day to this he has not entered 
his place of business. His company was ordered immediately 
to Virginia, where he participated in the Kanawha Valley cam- 
paign under Brigadier-General Cox. At Scrag Creek the battery, 
consisting of two rifled pieces, was engaged, fired seventy-nine 
rounds, and dismounted three of the enemy's four guns. At 
Tyler Mountain a skirmish occurred, in which, with his battery, 
Captain Cotter burned the rebel steamboat Julia Moffatt. 

In September, 1861, he enlisted a full six-gun battery at 
Eavenna and Cleveland, which was the first full one to go 
from Ohio. Passing through Kentucky and Tennessee, it 
reached Shiloh, but, being in the reserve, was not actively 
engaged. During the siege of Corinth he took part in a sever© 



THE CHIEF OF ORDNANCE. 301 

fight, in which four of his pieces fired two hundred and seventy 
nine rounds, repulsing the advance of a brigade of the enemy 
and killing a number of them, — forty dead bodies having been 
found on the field. He then marched to Huntsville and Battle 
Creek. He was promoted major June 9, 1862. About the 1st of 
October he was assigned to Major-General McCook as chief 
of artillery. At the battle of Perryville, October 8, he had 
charge of twenty-six pieces, used them constantly, and lost 
none of them. Near dusk he rode to the rear for a supply of 
ammunition; and while he was thus absent from the front our 
forces fell back a few hundred yards. Not noticing this on his 
return, — it being too dark to distinguish more than the outline 
of men and animals, — he rode directly into the Confederate lines 
— they having advanced — and was taken prisoner by Major- 
General Polk in person. That night the enemy retreated, and 
he was carried with them to Harrodsburg, where he was de- 
tained as a prisoner for three days, and then paroled, when he 
regained our lines. 

Eeturning to Ohio, he was ordered to Camp Chase, to take 
charge of the paroled artillerj^ troops. Here he remained until 
he was exchanged, reporting to General McCook for duty 
February 15, 1863. -He was at once appointed chief of artillery 
of the right wing of the Army of the Cumberland, or 20th 
Army Corps. 



THE CHIEF OF ORDNANCE. 

Captain Horace Porter (Ordnance Corps, U.S.A.), Chief of 
Ordnance, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in 1837. 
In June, 1855, he entered upon the five-years course at West 
Point, and in June, 1860, he graduated third in a class of forty- 
one. He was appointed brevet-lieutenant of ordnance July 1, 

1860, second lieutenant Api-il 22, 1861, first lieutenant June 7. 

1861, and captain March 3, 1863. 

At the opening of the war he was a bearer of despatches 



302 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

from Kew York to Washington, and was subsequently on deity 
at Washington and at Watervliet Arsenal, New York. In 
October, 1861, ho sailed with General T. W. Sherman's expedi- 
tion to Port Eoyal, South Carolina, and at the bombardment of 
Port Pulaski was chief of ordnance and artillery. At the attack 
on Secessionville, James Island, South Carolina, June 16, 1802, 
he was slightly wounded. In July, 1862, he joined the Army 
of the Potomac as chief of ordnance to General McClellan. In 
the following October he was assigned to the staff of General 
Wright, commanding the Department of the Ohio, as chief of 
ordnance, and in January, 1863, was appointed to a similar posi- 
tion on the staff of General Eosecrans, Department of the 
Cumberland. 



I 



gh ginng ^l^m\\ and Mcigraplt ^mkt 

The Signal Corps of our Army is composed of officers and 
enlisted men, detailed from different regiments, with special 
reference to their fitness for the duties required of them. The 
officers are instructed in the use of the signals used before they 
go into the field, and are forbidden to carry with them any thing 
that would give the enemy information leading to the discovery 
of the system in case of capture. The object of the organiza- 
tion is to keep up constant communication between the different 
parts of the army and the different commanding generals, and 
to closely scan and discover the movements of the enemy. For 
this reason, the officers are furnished with powerful telescopes 
and marine glasses, and are usually located on the tops of high 
elevations, or other commanding positions. 

When General Eosecrans g,ssumed command of the Army of 
the Cumberland, he adopted the signal system and reorganized 
the corps. The officers and men were ordered to report to 
Captain Jesse Merrill, Chief Signal Officer of the Department, 
and were divided into parties, put in charge of competent di- 
rectors, and assigned to the different army corps for duty. On 
the march from Nashville to Murfreesborough, officers were con 
stantly on the alert, collecting and communicating intelligence. 
During the twenty-four hours previous to the battle of Stone 
Eiver, communication was kept up from front to rear on the 
Mui-freesborough pike, and on Tuesday, while our army was 
fighting its way to what was afterwards its line of battle, short 
lines of communication were maintained. 

Soon after the occupation of Murfreesborough, two brigades 

were sent in the direction of McMinnville and Woodbury, — 

one as far as Readyville, twelve miles, and the other to Cripple 

303 



304 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Creek, eight miles, from Murfreesboroiigh. Between these two 
points, and a little north of the pike, is a high mountain, called 
Pilot Knob, and on its summit had been established a signal-sta- 
tion called " Fort Transit." This point commands the surround- 
ing country in all directions for miles; and many items of inte 
rest and importance were reported by the officers on that station 
They communicated with the central station in the cupola of the 
court-house at Murfreesborough ; and daily and nightly, on these 
stations, flags and torches could be seen waving information and 
orders from one point to the other. As the lines of the army 
were extended, communication in the same way was opened 
between the different points. The station on the court-house 
at Murfreesborough communicates with one at Lavergne, fifteen 
miles distant, and one near Triune, seventeen miles distant 
From the latter point a line of stations connects it with Franklin, 
and from the former communication can be had with Nashville 
whenever desired. 

Major Albert J. Meyer, Signal Officer of the Army, has re- 
cently added greatly to the efficiency of his department by 
sending to Murfreesborough a signal telegraph train. This 
train consists of six substantially-built wagons, each containing 
a telegraph instrument, tool-chest, axes, reels, &c. Three of 
the wagons also contain five miles of wire each; the other three 
have fifteen empty reels, used in reeling up the wire after being 
laid out. The telegraph instruments are the most complete for 
field-purposes ever put in operation, and much superior, both in 
matter of economy and reliability, to others now in use. The 
dial-instrument is used and the electricity is generated at the 
time of operating, and without the use of acid. The instrument 
is contained in a box which can be carried by one man, and its 
mechanism is so simple that it is ready for use the instant the 
station in the field is selected. Three lines were put in opera- 
tion at Murfreesborough, running to the corps commanders' 
head-quarters. The wire used is insulated by gutta-percha, and 
can be run out on the ground, hung on fences or trees, or put on 
poles. It is rolled upon reels, in one-mile sections, and, in run- 



THE ARMr SIGNAL AND TELEGRAPH SERVICE. 305 

ning it or rolling it up, the horses are kept at a steady and rapid 
trot. This field telegraph is a recent invention, scarcely more 
than a year old ; but it has been successfully used on the Poto- 
mac, and was of inestimable service at the attack on Fredericks- 
bui'g in December last. The principal object aimed at in its use 
is to keep open a constant communication of the different com- 
mands of an army with each other and with head-quarters, and 
also to connect the army, or any portion of it, with the signal- 
station, which, from the necessity of its location on some high 
and commanding point, is almost invariably at some distance 
from the camp. 

The full details of the system are, of course, known only to 
the initiated; for in its secrecy lies its success. A general idea 
of its character and management may be given, however, with- 
out injury to the service. In the first place, then, elevated posi- 
tions are chosen, between which communications are made by 
means of a flag in the daj^time and of a torch at night. The 
alphabet of the code consists of certain definite figures, different 
combinations of which represent the different letters of the 
ordinary English alphabet. Of these figures there are but few,, 
a sufficient variety being obtained by different combinations of 
the same figures. Thus, 11, 14 may mean A, while 14, 11 may 
mean D ; and so on. Each figure of the alphabet is represented 
by a definite number of dips or wavings of the flag or torch, 
thus enabling the experienced in the art to read messages at 
almost incredible distances with surpi-ising rapidity. 

To enable the reader more fully to understand the workings- 
of the system, let him accompany the author to the signal-sta- 
tion in the cupola of the court-house at Murfreesborough. Here 
he will find two windows, one looking towards Fort Transit, 
nine and a half miles to the east, and the other towards Triune, 
seventeen miles to the west. By the side of each is a telescope, 
firmly fixed and bearing upon the station opposite. Outside of 
the opening is a platform, upo-n which the man waving the flag 
or torch stands. It being desired to open communication, the 
flag is waved to and fro until seen and answered by the other 

20 



306 ARMY OF TUE CUMBERLAND, 

station, — which is generally but a moment or two, as somebody 
is always on the watch at the glass. The officer in charge seats 
himself at the glass, and, having observed the answer to his 
signal, calls to the man on the platform the figures which he 
wishes represented or waved. Thus, for example : 

3_11. 21—5; 2—31—11; 1-— 43— 5; 22—31; 14—22—23; 
1—43—5; 11—1—42; 1—42—2; 23—11; 1—11; 5—55. 

The substance of the above message is to inquire if a certain 
officer has arrived at a certain place, as expected. In w^hat 
seems scarcely more than a single minute after the last word 
is sent, the answer comes from Fort Transit, and is read by the 
officer at the glass. 

For the transmission of messages, diiferent-colored flags are 
emploj^ed, as best suits the state of the atmosphere. There are 
now in use at iMurfreesborough one black with a white centre, 
one white with a red centre, and one all red. Sometimes one 
can be plainly seen and recognized when another cannot be 
seen at all : hence the variety. As already said, there are two 
stations in the court-house at Murfreesborough, to which are 
.assigned two officers and four men. The stations are kept open 
.all th^e time, night and day, officers being constantly on the 
watch at the glass. When the station is " called" by one of the 
outlying stations, the officer in charge by whom the message is 
to be received and answered, if below in his office, is notified by 
the tapping of the court-house bell, two strokes calling him to 
one station, and three to the other. All messages sent and re- 
ceived are written out and copies of them preserved, which are 
often called for as evidence in courts-martial, &c. Messages 
received were formerly delivered at head-quarters by orderlies, 
but are now sent by the newly-arrived telegraph train. 

The sj-stem now in use in all the Union armies was invented 
by Major Meyer, the Signal Officer of the army, since the begin- 
ning of the present war, the one previously in use having become 
valueless because of certain officers of the corps having gone with 
the South. The rebels, too, have a system, invented or per- 
fected by one Alexander, formerly a lieutenant under Major 



THE ARMY SIGNAL AND TELEGRAPH SERVICE. 307 

Meyer, but now understood to be a brigadier-general in the 
Confederate service. Our army system differs from that of the 
navy, in that the latter is worked by a series of preconcerted 
and set phrases, while by this any thing that can be written 
can be telegraphed with astonishing rapidity and certainty. A 
message of twenty words can be sent in five minutes, and an- 
swered in as many more. As an illustration of its workings, a 
single example will suffice. In the latter part of March, Major- 
General Palmer made an expedition to Woodbury, twenty-two 
miles from Murfreesborough, and in less than thirty minutes 
after he entered the town General Eosecrans was informed of 
the fact by means of the signal corps. The commanding general 
at once despatched to him certain orders ; and in an hour from 
the time of sending them he was informed by General Palmer 
that they had been received and the troops disposed in accord- 
ance with them. The use of the field telegraph will materially 
add to the rapidity with which messages can be transmitted, 
by dispensing with the necessity of couriers between the head- 
quarters of commanders and the signal-station. 

The alphabet is not difficult to learn; but constant practice is 
required to enable the operator to send and receive messages 
without hesitation. The labor required of the corps is confining, 
but not severe. For days there may be little to do, and, again, 
both officers and men may be constantly employed during both 
the day and night. They sleep when they can, and are expected 
to be ready at a moment's warning. Messages, in very clear 
weather, can be read between Triune and Pilot Knob, twenty- 
seven miles, or between the Knob and Lavergne, twenty-five 
miles, without being repeated at Murfreesborough; and they 
have been sent direct from the Knob to Nashville, forty-five 
miles; but this distance is too great for the glasses now in use, 
and is not considered entirely reliable. In addition to the ordi- 
nary duty of transmitting messages, the ofiicers and men of 
the corps act as scouts, keeping a constant watch upon the 
movements of the enemy, as they are able to do from their 



308 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

commanding location, and reporting the results of their observa- 
tions to head-quarters without delay. 

The Signal Corps of the Army of the Cumberland is under 
the direction of Captain Jesse Merrill, of the 7th Pennsylvania 
Eeserve. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and an attorney by 
profession. He entered the service as second lieutenant, and 
served as such in the Army of the Potomac until January, 1862, 
when, having learned the code, he was detailed to the Army of 
the Cumberland to introduce it there and instruct the requisite 
number of oflScers and men in its mysteries. He is a thorough 
master of the system, and has rendered it highly effective, as the 
reader may judge from the foregoing account. 

The Murfreesborough station is under the charge of Captain 
C. E. Case, of the 36th Indiana, and T. J. Kelly, of the 10th Ohio 
Infantry. The telegraphic train is under command of Lieu- 
tenant D. Wonderly, of Philadelphia, assisted by Lieutenants S. 
F. Eeber and D. F. Jarvis. The corps of the department con- 
sists of about forty oflScers, and, inclusive of the telegraphic train, 
about one hundred and forty enlisted men, all of whom are 
detailed from their respective regiments for this service; and 
thus the signal service is rendered at but a trifling additional 
cost to the country. 



mt %mu Pail. 





Army Mail-Wagon escaping from Guerrillas at Lavergne. 

A soldier's life is a life of privation. Like the migratory 

patriarchs of the olden time, he is only " a sojourner in the 

land;" but, unlike them, his wife, his children, and his household 

gods go not with him in his wanderings. Their homes were 

ever present with them ; his can only be far away, in the forests 

of the free North or on the wide prairies of the West. " Home 

is where the heart is," sings the poet. " The heart is where 

home is," says the soldier; and not the daily stir of camp-life, 

not the march, with its ever-changing scenes, not even the 

309 



310 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

deadly Bhock of battle, can banish from his thoughts the dear 
ones whom he has left behind. Who, then, shall tell the heart- 
longings for home, for family, and for friends that crowd his 
hours of leisure and of rest ? At dead of night, as the sentinel 
paces his lonely round, his mind is busy with fondest memories. 
"Wrapped in his blanket, with only the stars above him, the 
soldier's weary body finds rest in sleep : yet he wanders from 
warlike scenes. No moonbeam brighter in its silvery flood than 
is his dream of that far-off home, where the good old father and 
mother sit by the chimney-corner and talk of their boy who has 
gone to the war, — where the loving wife presses the babe to her 
breast and gently whispers the story — alas ! how true ! — of its 
absent father, — where the maiden sleeps with dreams as pure 
and sweet as those in which he asks, "Are they of me V and 
hers seem to answer, " Yes." 

In the Army of the Cumberland there are fifty thousand men 
to whom this is no fancy sketch. They have been absent from 
their homes weeks, months, and even years. The interim has, 
perhaps, been fruitful of change in the dear home-circle. A 
mother, a wife, a child, has departed to the spirit-realm; the 
wedding-feast has been prepared in the household ; or may -be 
another flower is blooming amid the family garland, unseen as 
yet by the war-worn father. With what eagerness, then, must 
not a visit to that home be desired ! With what earnestness 
must not a furlough be sought ! But we are in an enemy's 
country, a hostile army confronts us face to face, and furloughs 
must necessarily be denied. We may think and dream of home ; 
but that is all. This privation, this heart-sickness, is the bane 
of a soldier's life. 

Much, however, may be doi^e to alleviate it. If we may not 
revisit those who nightly gather around the fireside, we may 
look upon their lineaments as painted by the sunbeam in its 
passage through the dark chambers of the camera. If we can- 
not whisper our thoughts and read the answer in loving eyes 
before the lips can give utterance, we can substitute pen for 
tongue, and, in return, gather from the thickly-covered page at 



THE ARMY MAIL. 311 

least a part of what we would so dearly love to hear. As sight 
is the best of all God's gifts to man, and hearing the next, so the 
next best thing to a visit is a letter from home. Its influence on 
the soldier can hardly be overestimated. It is a messenger of 
love and hope, bringing words of comfort and cheer in those 
dark and trying hours which come alike, at times, to all. If it 
be in answer to tidings of victory, words of praise nerve him to 
still more daring deeds of valor. If of defeat, it bids him not 
despair, but, with faith in God and his own good sword, press 
persistently on to the inevitable triumph that awaits him. Un- 
certainty and suspense are ended, positive knowledge of home- 
affairs reigning in their stead. Discontent gives place to cheer- 
fulness, and with firmer hope, higher aspiration, he re-enters 
upon his daily duty. A happier man and a better soldier, his 
country not less than himself is indebted for the change to the 
Army Mail. 

At the outset it became evident that regular mails could not 
be supplied to our armies in the field through the usual agency 
of the Post-Office Department. Eailroads were torn up; river- 
navigation was often interrupted, and became at all times 
dangerous ; old mail-routes were suspended ; mail-matter 
destined for the army accumulated at the distributing offices 
and at the termini of the regular routes, in hopelessly confused 
heaps, to be forwarded only at long intervals. Grave complaints 
unavoidably arose, and it became necessary to devise a military 
mail-system which, independent of, yet acting in concert with, 
the civil department, would supply the deficiency. Among the 
first to notice the evil and apply the remedy was Major-General 
Rosecrans. Himself a practical soldier and appreciating a 
soldier's minor wants, it is with him a settled policy to minister 
to the mind as well as to the body. In Western Virginia his 
efl'orts to secure regular mail-facilities to his men were attended 
with partial success; but it was not until called to the command 
of the Army of the Mississippi that he was enabled to inaugurate 
a thoroughly complete system of daily military mails. 

Immediately on his arrival at Corinth, he appointed Colonel 



312 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

William Truesdail his army mail agent. Messengers were at 
once placed upon the boats and railroads between that place 
and Cairo. An efficient general travelling agent — P. "W. Currier, 
Esq. — was engaged; and it was one of his special duties to visit 
the various distributing offices at Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago, 
St. Louis, and Cairo, and furnish them with accurate lists of 
the divisions, brigades, regiments, and smaller commands con- 
stituting that army, and to have forwarded from those offices 
bushels, and in some instances wagon-loads, of mail-matter 
found piled beneath tables and counters or stowed away in 
drawers, barrels, and back rooms. 

Upon assuming command of the Army of the Cumberland, 
General Rosecrans found it in a worse condition even than had 
been the Army of the Mississippi in respect to mail-matter. 
Recently marched up from Alabama, through Kentucky and 
Tennessee, to the Ohio River, and now back again to Bowling 
Green, the troops had been almost everywhere in turn and 
nowhere long. Battles, skirmishes, and forced marches had 
followed each other in rapid succession ; divisions and brigades 
were scattered here and there ; and even regimental commands 
were divided between widely distant stations. No accessible 
record of their movements and localities had been" preserved, 
and it had been found simply impossible to forward the long- 
looked-for mails. Thus thousands of soldiers and officers, as 
well as privates, had been weeks and months without tidings 
from home or friends, while tons of mail-matter lay moulder- 
ing in distant post-offices. To bring order out of this chaos 
was again the difficult duty of Colonel Truesdail, which was 
speedily accomplished, aided by his assistant, Mr. Currier, and 
other agents. Messengers were appointed and teams were 
arranged, and a system improvised ready for operation when 
the army should advance into the enemy's country. F. C. 
Herrick, Esq., an experienced employe of the civil department, 
was appointed army postmaster, — whose duty it was to move 
with the army and receive and distribute the mails, with in- 
structions to operate in harmony with the United States mail 



THE ARMY MAIL. 313 

authorities and have for his sole object the prompt delivery of 
the mails to the soldiers. 

At this time, it will be remembered, Nashville was invested 
by the rebels, and for two months all communication with the 
North suspended. Not until our army reached that city was it 
relieved from the dearth of mail-matter. True, certain private 
parties had attempted to run the gauntlet with small letter- 
mails; but failure and loss of teams and mails had been the 
result. Now, however, daily mails were regularly received and 
sent, greatly to the joy of all. The Government then brought 
the mails only to Mitchellsville, Tennessee, distant from Nash- 
ville thirty -five miles. Between these places bridges had been 
burned and tunnels blown up by the rebels, rendering the rail- 
road unavailing for several weeks. The mail-wagons were at 
once put on ; and for two months a heavy mail passed each way 
through a wild guerrilla country, accompanied by a strong 
cavalry escort. Arrived at Nashville, it was at once distributed 
and sent to the various division, biygade, and regimental head- 
quarters. Some idea of the business thus transacted may be 
gathered from the fact that not unfrequently twenty thousand 
letters were mailed at the Nashville office in a single day, besides 
two or three bushels of photographs, daguerreotypes, &c. From 
eight to twelve hundred dollars' worth of stamps were sold daily, 
and nearly all of them to the army. 

"When the advance towards Murfreesborough began, the army 
was again thrown beyond the reach of the Government mails; 
and again recourse was had to the army wagons and messengers, 
and daily trips were made, sometimes Avith, but oftener with- 
out, an escort. The route was through a dangerous country 
infested with roving bands of rebel cavalry : yet during many 
weeks the mails were thus carried safely and regularly, and in 
that time not a mail-bag, or, to the knowledge of the writer, a 
single letter, was lost. Early in March the railroad between 
Nashville and Murfreesborough was reopened; and since then 
daily mails have been received from and sent to Nashville by 
the army postmaster with great regularity, the Army of the 



314 AEMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Cumberland receiving its mails more promptly and with less 
confusion, probably, than does any other army in the field. 
Upon an average, twenty-two thousand letters — amounting in 
bulk to fifteen bushels — leave the Murfreesborough military 
oflSce daily, to be duly mailed in the United States distributing 
office at Nashville, from whence they are sent over the regular 
mail-routes to their respective destinations. The equally large 
mails received are sorted and distributed, by means of the mail- 
wagons, among the various camps and military offices with 
creditable energy and despatch. 

In a correspondence of such magnitude it is idle to say that 
complaints do not arise. In spite of every care, letters will fail 
to reach their destination ; but the wonder really is that so few 
are lost. In the Department of the Cumberland, embracing 
"Western Kentucky and Middle and Eastern Tennessee, there are 
not less than twelve divisions, thirty-seven brigades, and more 
than two hundred regiments, besides independent organizations, 
such as pioneers, engineers, the signal corps, sharpshooters, 
batteries, scouts, hospitals, convalescent camps, &c. &c. Imagine 
the perplexity, then, of the army postmaster as he puzzles his 
brain over thousands of letters addressed, in the most unread- 
able hand, after this style: — "Mr. John Smith, Co. A, Eosecrans 
Army;" " Lt. Tom Jones, 8d Div.;" " Capt. Brown, 2d Brigade;" 
"Major Thompson, 21st Eegt.;" and which he is expected to 
forward " in haste." The only possible disposition of such 
letters is to send them from regiment to regiment, until fre- 
quently they are literally worn out in their fruitless search for 
an owner. 

Thus far the practical workings of the system have fully 
realized the most sanguine expectations of its originators. The 
cheerfulness imbuod and the confidence inspired are well worth 
its entire expense; but, aside from these, the Government is 
abundantly remunerated for every outlay by the extra revenue 
derived from the thus largely-increased correspondence. "With 
regular mails three letters are written where one would be with- 
out; and under the present system it only requires proper direc- 



THE ARMY MAIL. 315 

tion to insure prompt delivery. The simplest and plainest 
address is the best. The name, the title (if any there be), the 
company, the regiment, the State from which it comes, the arm 
of service to which it belongs, and the army or corps of which 
it is a part, comprise all that is absolutely indispensable to 
secure the safe and speedy delivery of army letters. The num- 
bers of the brigade and division are not necessary; but it is better 
to add them if known. The same may also be said of the par- 
ticular locality at which the command is stationed, and the 
route which the letter is to take. But such an address as this 
is sufficient : — " Eobert Jasper, Co. H, 21st Ecgt. Illinois Infantry, 
Army of the Cumberland, via Louisville, Ky ." " Cavalry" or "Ar- 
tillery" may be substituted for " Infantry," as occasion requires. 
The distributing officers are furnished with lists of the regiments 
comprised in those armies whose letters they receive and 
forward, as well as their stations; and it is only necessary to 
know the particular army to which it is to go to insure the 
transmission of a letter thereto, and the company and regiment 
in that army, to secure its speedy delivery to the owner upon its 
arrival there. 

A single incident will illustrate the occasional dangers of the 
military mail-service. During the week of battles at Stone 
Kiver, the most important mail-matter was sent to and fro at 
considerable risk of capture from the rebel cavalry that had 
succeeded in getting between Nashville and the rear of our army 
and were burning wagon-trains on the road. On the evening 
of December 31, the day of the heaviest fighting, intelligence 
came that our shelterless men were wellnigh exhausted from 
continued exposure to storm and mud. Colonel Truesdail at 
once ordered a mail-wagon to be filled with choice refreshments 
for the general's head-quarters, which, with important mail- 
matter, he intrusted to the charge of S. A. Esterbrook, Esq., one 
of the oldest and boldest of the army mail-messengers. By ten 
o'clock, " Brooks," as he is called, was ready to start on his 
journey. Arrived at the outer pickets, he is told by the guards 
that the road is alive with rebel cavalry, that he will certainly 



S16 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

be cap'ured, and they flatly refuse to j^ass him beyond the 
lines. His protest is of no avail, and back he comes to the office. 
Colonel Truesdail, much disappointed, writes a peremptory order 
to pass the mail-wagon, assuming all risk himself. Again 
" Brooks" sets forth, and passes the pickets, but is scarcely out 
of sight or_ hearing when he meets a motley crowd of flying 
teamsters, pedlars, and camp-followers, each telling a more dread- 
ful tale than the preceding of discomfiture to our arms, dangers 
along the road, raids of rebel horsemen, and flames of burning 
wagons. So strong the tide and so unanimous the story that 
" Brooks," concluding further advance fool-hardy, and, in this 
case, discretion certainly the better part of valor, again retraces 
his way, and at two o'clock in the morning is once more in 
Nashville. 

The colonel had just retired, and was sleeping when " Brooks" 
came thundering into the office. Awakened by the noise, he is 
possibly a little vexed. Certes, he walks the room excitedly in 
rather scanty attire, — the shortness of army shirts being pro- 
verbial. Ere long, oaths fly about like feathers in a gale ; and 
finally the intimation is heard that " Brooks is afraid." A still 
more wrathful explosion now occurs, " Brooks" declaring that 
wagon, mail, messenger, and driver will start again, and this 

time go without fail to Stone Eiver or to a much hotter 

place. " Yes," says the colonel, " go on : put 'em through ; let 
the rebs get you if they can, — I want 'em to get you; but, if 
they do, lose your mails, destroy j-our despatches, and burst 
in your liquors, 'em !" 

A third time our man starts, resolved to " do or die." It is 
almost dawn as his wagon rattles up the hill overlooking 
Lavergne, and a strange and fearful sight greets him at its 
summit. For a mile and a half the road is quite straight, 
descending a long slope into the valley in which Lavergne is 
built, and beyond the town again ascending a similar ridge. As 
far as eye can reach, the flames of burning wagons leap a\ ildly 
up iuto the darkness, made tenfold darker by their lurid light. 
No living form is visible, — only the whitened surface of " the 



THE ARMY MAIL. 817 

pike" and the sombre cedar thickets by its side. The aathors of 
this havoc are Im-king near by, or, more probably, are making 
good their escape with such plnnder from our trains as can b«» 
carried on the backs of captured mules. Danger is ahead; but 
there is no escape : only the speed of his horses can save our 
driver now. Their mettle is of the best, and serve him well a8 
he sweeps along like the wind, turning quickly out and in to 
avoid the burning wagons, listening all the while with bated 
breath for the whistling of bullets and the tramp of pursuing 
cavalry. The valley is reached, the town passed, the hill gained, 
and he is safe, and. the journey ended, he meets with a hearty 
welcome at head-quarters. His was a narrow escape, as but 
half an hour previously that road was lined by a thousand rebel 
cavalry. An illustration of this scene precedes this chapter. 



When the Army of the Cumberland advanced southward 
from Bowling Green, the troops were gradually withdrawn from 
stations in Kentucky and elsewhere, and massed in the direc- 
tion of Nashville, an aggregate of thousands, however, being 
unavoidably left b6hind on detached service, in hospitals, and 
absent on furloughs. Meanwhile an entire reorganization of 
the army was effected, — scarcely a regiment or battery remain- 
ing in its old brigade or division. 

When Nashville was reached, and for weeks thereafter, not a 
day passed without the return of hundreds of these absentees 
to rejoin their commands, of whose whereabouts ofl&cers and 
privates were often alike ignorant. The military offices in the 
city were besieged with crowds of anxious inquirers, and for a 
time all was confusion. At length so great became this daily 
influx, and so considerable the time required to attend to it, 
that the general commanding committed the business to the 
care of the Chief of the Army Police ; and to the usual crowd 
thronging the police office was now added this motley array of 
soldiery, too often weak and weary, and always without food 
or shelter. 

Colonel Truesdail at once set about adjusting the difficulty in 
a speedy and practical manner. A tent was pitched on the 
vacant lot adjoining the police building, and an active and in- 
telligent agent there duly installed as Army Director. The 
proper authorities were consulted, and an accurate schedule of 
the new army organization compiled. Messengers were de- 
spatched to ascertain the exact locality of each command, and 
lost soldiers were notified, by handbills posted through the city, 
to report themselves at this tent. The plan worked well, and 

318 



THE ARMY DIRECTORY. 819 

the military offices were soon rid of what had become ai) in- 
tolerable nuisance. The streets were cleared of stragglers, and 
the soldiers — many of them just discharged from hospitals, and 
sorely travel-worn — were promptly forwarded to their respect- 
ive camps. When the army moved to Murfreesborough, the 
same difficulty was experienced; and an office was opened there, 
with a like good result. The department thus at first tempo- 
rarily organized is yet continued, and is known as the Army 
Directory or Intelligence Office. 

The cost to the Government of the office, which experience 
has proved to be a necessity in a large and ever-fluctuating army, 
is very slight, only a single clerk being needed. The benefits 
derived therefrom are incalculably great. Persons seeking for 
friends in the army have only to inquire at the directory to 
ascertain their whereabouts. Full and reliable burial-lists also 
may be found there, by means of which relatives in quest of 
the remains of deceased soldiers can at once be pointed to their 
resting-places. Not only lost soldiers are set right, but the 
hundreds of citizens, sanitary commissioners, nurses, traders, 
and others visiting the army are furnished with information 
indispensable to them in an army spread over two hundred 
miles of territory, and which is attainable in no other way. The 
good thus done, the sufi'ering avoided, and the facilities aflForded 
" the stranger within our gates" can be fully appreciated only 
by those who have mingled in the confusion of camp-life as 
witnessed during this rebellion. 



i^he 3^rmg (Chaplains. 

No class of men connected with the army have been the 
subject of more hasty and ill-advised criticism than the chap- 
lains. Their office and mission have been pronounced a failure 
by the depraved and thoughtless, and they have been classed 
as useless and an encumbrance, whose only aim and end 
was to draw their pay. Not unfrequently, discouraged at the 
results of their labors and doubtful of future success, some of 
our best chaplains have turned their backs upon the army and 
returned to their homes. At first blush, the assertion that but 
little good has been accomplished in this branch of the service 
in proportion to the numbers engaged and the means expended, 
would seem to be supported by observation and experience ; but 
a candid examination of all the circumstances bearing upon the 
case will demonstrate its utter injustice. Were the army chap- 
lains and their labors judged from a true stand-point, there 
would not be wanting words of gratitude and praise from every 
pen and tongue. But, their triumphs not being blazoned abroad 
on flaming banners, the influence they exert working secretly 
and without ostentation, the seed they sow not being followed 
for many years, perhaps, by the springing grain and the ripen- 
ing harvest, they have been decried by men ignorant of the 
good they have accomplished. 

The disadvantages and difficulties of the chaplain are almost 
innumerable. In every camp there will be found some bad men, 
whose influence goes far to neutralize that of the most faithful 
chaplain. Many officers are careless of the teachings of Chris- 
tianity, and the soldier too often follows where his commandei 
leads in the walks of every-day life as well as on the battle- 
field. In camp the restraints of home and society are removed, 

320 



THE ARMY CIIArLAINS. 321 

and wild passions hold a fiercer sway. Vice abounds on every 
hand, temptation to sin is everywhere present; and opposed to 
it all is oftentimes only the single voice of the chaplain. Under 
such circumstances, even favored with every assistance and 
encouragement, his task would be a herculean one, in which 
the chances of failure and success would be evenly balanced. 
But of assistance he has none, and of eat^ouragement far too 
little. Congress provided for chaplains, and the people doubt- 
less supposed that in so doing they had secured spiritual instruc- 
tion and solace to our soldiers and the blessing of God iipon our 
arms. But they made no provision for the accomplishment of 
this work. No system of duties is prescribed by the regula- 
tions, and thus they have no authoritative claim upon the time 
and attention of officer or private. Each chajjlain is thrown 
upon his own resources, to do as best he can. By incessant 
labor he may accomplish much ; but, with his opportunities eir- 
cumsci'ibed or totally restricted, according to the taste of those 
to whom he is subordinate, with the vile influences of camp- 
associations working against him, it is no matter of surprise 
that many a chaplain fails to accomplish all that may be ex- 
pected or desired. 

It is seldom, however, that the chaplain has to encounter the 
direct opposition of any of his superior officers. Many of the 
latter are Christians; and many more have so much regard for 
the gospel and its teachings that they take pains to render their 
chaplain every possible assistance. In such cases his success 
is proportionably greater, his influence more potent for good^ 
and the results of his eff'orts more apparent. It is not of the 
outspoken opposition of either officers or men that the chaplains 
most complain. It is rather the bad influence of their example 
working upon that spirit of imitation which in army life be- 
comes almost second nature. To combat this is their most 
serious task, requiring the exercise of the utmost patience, 
perseverance, and faith. Despite these difficulties and vexa- 
tions, however, they labor on, and their labors are rarely 
wholly in vain. The good they do, the influence they exert 

21 



322 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

Tipon those around ^ them, the suffering they alleviate, the 
wounds of body and spirit they bind up, may not now be fully 
known and appreciated; but there will come a day when in the 
light of perfect knowledge their labors will be recognized and 
rewarded. 

That there are unworthy and incompetent chaplains in the 
army is not to be denied. Through base means and influence, 
some such have crept into the service, and some may have 
fallen away, even, as did Judas Iscariot from among the chosen 
twelve. Those who thus fail and fall attract sjDecial atten- 
tion, and by them the remainder have too often been judged. 
The majority are earnest, industrious, God-fearing men, by 
whom every opportunity for good is faithfully improved. 
That they work for pay only is abundantly disproved by the 
fact that few of them save any thing from their salary. The 
numberless calls upon them by the sick, the wounded, and 
the destitute would consume an income vastly larger than that 
of a chaplain. Theirs is a labor of love and duty, for which 
they have left the comforts of home to endure the danger's and 
inconveniences of camp-life, and for which they can find their 
reward only in an approving conscience. 

For various reasons, many chaplains have resigned and gone 
home. Some were unfortunate in manner and style. Not every 
clergyman can succeed in the camp. The soldier must be in- 
terested, — his attention withdrawn from all outside influences to 
the words of the preacher. A peculiar style of delivery is 
necessary. A monotonous " sing-song" tone will effectually ruin 
any camp-preaching. The eye, the hands, the posture, the 
tongue, the brain, and, above all, the Holy Spirit, are essential 
elements in all sermons, and especially those intended for the 
camp. Energy and industry, a buoyant spirit which no diffi- 
culties, no opposition, can daunt, and a faith that no temporary 
failures can cast down, are necessary qualities in every success- 
ful army chaplain. The motto inscribed upon his banner should 
be the divine injunction, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, 
do it with thy might." 



THE ARMY CHAPLAINS. 323 

On account ol the constant changes occurring in the positions 
of the troops in this department, it is impossible to preserve a 
complete register of the chaplains in the Army of the Cumber- 
land. The following list comprises those who participated in^ 
the " Chaplains' Council," whose first session was held in Mur- 
freesborough, Tennessee, beginning April 1, 1863. 

Revs. Hiram Gilmore; B. A. Strong, 3d Ohio; T. R. Cres- 
scy, 2d Minnesota ; W. H. McFarland, 97th Ohio ; J. C. Thomas, 
88th Illinois; John J. Height, 58th Indiana; "William S. Cresap, 
10th Indiana; Ed. Keller, 15th Missouri; J. M. Green, 81st In- 
diana; Hooper Crews, 100th Illinois; J. A. Frazier, 73d Indiana; 
B. R. Baker, 3d East Tennessee; L. H. Jamison, 79th Indiana; 
T. O.Spenser, 89th Illinois; J. M. Whitehead, 15th Indiana; O. 
P. Clinton, 21st Wisconsin; A. S. Lakin, 39th Indiana; J. 
Poucher, 38th Ohio ; R. F. Delo, 30th Indiana ; W. H. Rodgera, 
69th Ohio; H. W. Shaw, 29th Indiana; Thomas M. Gunn, 2l8t 
Kentucky; W. M. Haight, 36th Illinois; G. S Stuff, 42d Illinois; 
Lewis Raymond, 51st Illinois; Thomas B. Van Home, 13th Ohio; 
W. S. Hearker, 86th Indiana; I. F. Roberts, 44th Indiana; 
James H. Bristow, 5th Kentucky; O. Kennedy, lOlst Ohio; N. 
P. Chariot, 22d Indiana; E. D. Wilkin, 2l8t Illinois; H. A. Pat- 
tison, 11th Michigan; John W. Chapin, 59th Ohio; Jesse Hill, 
72d Indiana; W. Price, 2d Kentucky; W. H. Black, 23d Ken- 
tucky; John H. Lozier, 37th Indiana, post chaplain at Mur 
freesborough. ^ 

In addition to the above, there are several others, who, for 
various reasons, could not be present at the council. Among 
these are remembered the names of Revs. Father Trecy, chap- 
lain at head-quarters; Father O'Higgins, 10th Ohio; Father 
Cooney, 35th Indiana ; S. Layton, 17th Indiana ; N. M. Patterson, 
42d Indiana; John Dillon, 18th Ohio; J. M. Morrow, 99th Ohio; 
Isaac Moufort, 68th Indiana; L.F.Drake, 121st Ohio; Wm. 
Cliff, 98th Illinois ; Jacob Cooper, 3d Kentucky ; Chaplain Mat- 
thews, 11th Kentucky; L. E. Carson, 38th Indiana; Chaplain 
Alington, 94th Ohio ; J. W. Lane, 80th Indiana; and Levi Walker, 
60th Illinois. 



324 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Of the above-named chaplains thirty-two are Methodists, six 
are Baptists, six are Presbyterians, three are Catholics, and one 
is a Campbellite. The religious denominations to which the re- 
mainder belong are unknown to the author. 

The chaplains' council chose for its president Eev. E. A. Strong, 
of Ohio, and for secretary Eev. John J. Height, of Indiana. Be- 
foi-e concluding an interesting session of three days, the council 
adopted the following resolutions, which were reported by a com- 
mittee consisting of Chaplains Lozier, of Indiana, Pattison, of 
Michigan, and Black, of Kentucky, as an expression of the sen- 
timents of the meeting. 

" Resolved, That we, as chaplains of the United States army, in the De- 
partment of the Cumberland, at this our first meeting, express our unfeigned 
gratitude to Almighty God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, for the preserva- 
tion of our lives and health in the midst of the ravages of war and disease, 
for all the good we have been enabled to accomplish in the cause of religion 
and humanity since we entered the service, and for the general health and 
indomitable courage of our officers and soldiers and their success in the field 
of battle. 

" Resolved, That in the transfer of the Anglo-Saxon race to this Western 
world, in the enunciation of the political faith of our country, in the forma- 
tion and adoption of our Federal Constitution, in our signal victories in the 
past on the field of battle and our present achievements, we recognize the 
hand of God, and we firmly trust that the heaven-inspired principles of 
American liberty shall not only be more firmly established in our own coun- 
try, but shall become the settled political faith of the world ; and that we 
regard the ultimate triumph of these principles of more value to us and our 
posterity than all the sacrifices involved in the present struggle. 

" Resolved, That we heartily approve the sentiment of the late Senator 
Douglas, that there are but two parties in this country, — the friends and the 
enemies of the nation, — and that every man who does not sustain every 
measure necessary to uphold the Government is a traitor at heart, and that 
we have no sympathy with such persons, whether found in the North or 
South. He that is not for the Government is against it, according to the 
principles enunciated by our Lord Jesus Christ. 

" Resolved, That the history of the past, the present aspect of things, and 
a brightening future, strengthen our determination to still labor and pray 
for the success of our President and military authorities in their efibrts to 
save our country. 

" Resolved, That we more than ever look on the work of chaplains in the 
army as of great necessity, utility, and responsibility, and that nothing shall 
discourage us in our work of faith and labor of love, but we will pursue 
our calling with the patience of hope, fully appreciating the approbation of 



THE ARMY CHAPLAINS. 325 

our own respective oiBcers and regarding their co-operation as a powerful 
auxiliary in the accomplishment of our work. 

" Resolved, That we extend our sincere sympathies to all who have Buf- 
fered or are suffering either from the wastings of disease, the terrible 
ravages of battle, or the crushing sorrow of the loss of friends, and in our 
pj-ayers we will ever commend them to the God of all grace and consola- 
tion. 

"Resolved, That we appeal to all who claim the exalted title of ministers 
of the gospel in this nation to use their influence wherever they go to sustain 
the principles and sentiments embodied in the foregoing resolutions, and to 
impress on all men the duty of rendering 'to Caesar the things that are 
Cajsar's, and to God the things that are God's.' " ' 

The renowned fighting as well as praying Methodist preacher, 
Colonel Granville Moody, of the 74th Ohio, occupied a seat in 
this council, and hy his words of fervid eloquence more than 
once stirred the hearts of his younger brethren in the work. 

Quite a number of the chaplains are detached from their regi- 
ments and placed on duty in the various hospitals. The chap- 
lains thus detailed are under the general supervision of Eev. 
John Poucher, of the 38th Ohio, one of the most faithful and 
laborious of the fraternity. It is in the hospitals that the chap- 
lains find their most promising field of operations. Here eager, 
willing ears ai*e ever ready to listen to their words of hope and 
consolation. Many a spirit, not less sore than the wounded 
body, is soothed and calmed by their kind ministrations. In 
the future, long after the war is over, and when only its 
saddening memories remain, many a former soldier of the Army 
of the Cumberland will invoke a blessing upon the faithful 
chaplain who visited and cared for him when prostrated by 
sickness or wounds. 

As an instance of valuable services rendered by the army 
chaplains, we may mention that during the battles of Stone 
Eiver, Chaplain Lozier, of the 37th Indiana, was constantly on 
the ground, assisting in the removal of the wounded, exposing 
himself in the most fearless manner to the shower of shot and 
sheP, His services upon that occasion were of inestimable 
value, as can be attested by many who but for him, helpless and 



826 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

wounded as tliey were, might have met their death at the feet 
of the trampling hosts rushing on to the fray. 

It would be pleasant and just to extend this chapter and make 
particular mention of other chaplains enumerated in the fore- 
going catalogue; but a volume would hardly suffice to do them 
justice, and to discriminate would be unwise and unjust, where 
all are worthy. That there are diversities of gifts among them 
is beyond question, and that some are more abundant in labors 
than others is equally true. To some are also accorded greater 
oj^portunities than to others; and by these only should they be 
judged. When they who read these lines have arrived at a 
practical realization of the difficulties encountered by these 
voluntary exiles from the refinements of home, and when they 
shall know, in the full perfection of knowledge, all the good 
resulting from their services in the field, the camp, and the 
hospital, then may they pass their verdict upon them. But 
until then let no one say that the army chaplaincy is a failure. 



GENEEAL EOSEOEANS'S CHAPLAIIT. 

Eev. Father Trecy, chaplain of the 4th Eegular Cavalry, and 
at head-quarters, is so well known throughout the Army of the 
Cumberland, and so generally respected and beloved, that we 
need offer no apology for introducing a brief mention of him in 
this work. He has been with this army from the beginning, 
his cheering counsel and benign countenance imparting pleasure 
and confidence wherever we meet him, whether in the camp, 
or during the dusty march, or upon the battle-field. Among the 
sick, the wounded, and the dying, be they Catholic or Protest- 
ant, saint or sinner, his labors are constant, and freely given, 
" without money and without price." 

He was born in Ireland in 1826, and with his parentrs and 
family he emigrated to the United States in 1836, landing at 



GENERAL ROSECRANS'S CHAPLAIN. 327 

Philadelphia, and shortl}^ afterwards removing to Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania. In 184-i he commenced study for the ministry, 
and was ordained at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1851. For a short time 
thereafter he had charge of the parish of Dubuque. In Sep- 
tember of that year he was sent to the " Garry Owen" setth» 
ment, twenty miles back of Dubuque, where he labored during 
a period of four years, collected a congregation, and planned and 
accomplished the erection of a large stone church-edifice. 

In 1854 Father Trecy was sent by Bishop Loras, of that 
diocese, to the country bordering upon the line between Iowa 
and Nebraska, where he collected several congregations or colo- 
nies. Thence he also made repeated visitations to the military 
posts of Fort Eandall, Fort Pierre, Fort Kearney, and Fort 
Leavenworth, and to several of the Indian tribes of those re- 
gions. His travels during this period of five years extended 
over a vast region of country, and included a tour through 
most of the Southern States. During this time he also suc- 
ceeded in collecting and establishing considerable congregations 
of his people at Council Bluff, Sioux City, St. Johns, and 
Omaha City. 

In 1860, Father Trecy, at his own request, was sent to the 
South, his health having become affected by his labors and 
exposures in the Northwest. He arrived at New Orleans the 
evening previous to the day of the election of President Lincoln, 
and heard Mr. Yancey make his notable disunion speech at the 
base of the Henry Clay monument. Thence he proceeded to 
Mobile, and joined that diocese, and was sent out over the State 
of Alabama upon a missionary tour. At Huntsville, North 
Alabama, he found many of his people, who were scattered and 
neglected, and resolved to stay there for a time and aid them in 
building a church. His labors were successful, and he planned and 
commenced a building, — which had progressed to the windows 
of the main story, when the rebellion began and caused a sus- 
pension of the work. The edifice was designed to be of cut 
Btone, and one of the finest in that section of country. 

Father Trecy was always a Union man, firm and cou- 



328 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

stant; and so were his entire congregation at Iluntsville, except- 
ing three families, who owned slaves, more or less. His minis- 
terial course, however, was kind and conciliatory, his whole aim 
being the spiritual good of his people and to build the church. 
After the fall of Fort Donelson the general, hospitals for the sick 
and wounded rebel soldiery were located at Iluntsville. Hun- 
dreds of them were brought there and placed in negro pens and 
sheds ; and their condition soon became shocking. Father Trecy 
was now constantly in attendance at these hospital-barracks. 
Alas that the same cannot be said of the rebel ministers and the 
secession ladies of that city ! His complaints respecting the 
filthy condition of the hospitals met with no response, except that 
permission was given him to i"cmedy the evil as best he might. 
He employed laborers, cleansed the premises thoroughly, pro- 
vided bathing-tubs, and solicited donations to meet the expenses 
thus incurred. His widelj^ diffused benevolence was duly appre- 
ciated by the hospital inmates and by most of the citizens of 
Huntsville; but, sad to state, there were narrow and illiberal 
souls in that region who charged these benevolent deeds to 
interested motives, declaring that Father Trecy was aiming to 
"Romanize the hospitals" ! 

Upon the approach of the Federal forces, under General O.- 
M. Mitchel, tliese rebel hospitals were broken up, and the 
inmates were taken to Atlanta, Georgia, and Courtland, Ala- 
bama, — man}^ of them dying from the effects of this sudden re- 
moval. Soon after, the battle of Shiloh occurred, and Father 
Trecy was solicited by the people of Huntsville to go to that 
place with medical and hospital .supplies for the wounded of the 
rebel army. The forces of General Mitchel arrived at Hixnts- 
ville soon after, — upon hearing which he started to return to 
that town, travelling about two-thirds of the distance on foot, 
and the remainder upon a mule. During the stay of the Federal 
ai'my at Huntsville he was kind and courteous to all. Many 
well remember meeting him there often among our suffering 
soldiers in the hospitals, during the occupancy of Huntsville by 
the Union troops. To the eternal shame of the rebel Protcstaut 



GENERAL ROSECRANS's CHAPLa'iN. 329 

ministers of that city be it here recorded that while Father 
Trecj was visiting the sick and attending the funerals of the 
dead, thej were, for the public security, kept under close guard 
at the court-house, as the only means of restraining their rebel- 
lious tempers. The only ministerial courtesies then extended 
to any of our chaplains were from Father Trecy, the priest of 
Huntsville. "When the army retreated northward. Dr. John E. 
Goodwin, of the 37th Indiana Volunteers, was left there in 
charge of the sick who could not be removed; and many were 
the deeds of kindness done to him and his patients by the same 
loyal-hearted priest. Such manifestations of Christian charity, 
however, did not suit the tastes of the chivalrous rebels, and 
Father Trecy soon had to flee for his life to the lines of 
General Eosecrans. 

Shortly after the battle of luka, he returned to Huntsville to 
look after his personal effects. He was twice taken prisoner 
while on the way, and was each time in imminent danger of 
maltreatment. His journey was without profit, and he returned 
to Corinth ; and from that time to the present writing he has 
remained with Major-General Eosecrans as his constant and 
faithful friend and spiritual adviser. 

Father Trecy is no bigot : he meets all men with kindly 
spirit. His aid and charity are extended without question in 
barracks and hospitals. He was present upon the battle-fields 
of luka, Corinth, and Stone Eiver, ministering to the dying. 
His gentle bearing and pure and simple mode of life is the 
exemplar of his religious teachings, and proves a constant yet 
pleasing rebuke to profanity, intemperance, and kindred vices, 
too common in army life ; and his influence upon the young men, 
especially at the general's head-quarters, is very beneficial. 

One of the most impressive scenes of the war was the cele- 
bration of high mass by Father Trecy in a i ude log cabin upon 
the battle-field of- Stone Eiver, on Sunday morning, the 4th of 
January, 1863, — the day after the retreat of the rebels from 
Mu-freesborough. It was a beautiful morning, — the first after a 
week of rain-storms. Dead soldiers and horses were still strewn 



830 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND. 

over the fields, and burial-parties were engaged at their solemn 
task. The general in command, his staff and guests, assembled 
in and around that rude cabin, while the holy rites were cele- 
brated, and a short address delivered by our chaplain from the 
text, — 

" In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great 
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, 
because they are not." — Matthew ii. 18. 

Every heart was touched, and the pent-up feelings of strong 
men who had striven in these scenes of battle sought relief in 
tears. 

This memorable occasion is happily illustrated at the com- 
mencement of this sketch. 



Mt ^anilarg iS'ont mission. 

When the volunteer soldiers of the loyal States first took ih^ 
field to aid in supj)ressing the present rebellion, the spontaneou.% 
inquiry arose in the hearts of those who remained at home, 
What can we do for the cause and for the soldiers of the Union ? 
The appalling blunders of the English in the Crimean War, and 
the terrible mortality resulting therefrom, had called the 
attention of medical and military men to the necessity of better 
sanitary measures for preserving the health of armies than had 
before been adopted. The best medical men of the Union im- 
mediately took counsel, availed themselves of all the informa- 
tion which the system — or want of system — in other armies 
afi'orded, and, with the approval of the President, the Secretary 
of War, and the Surgeon-General, organized the United States 
Sanitary Commission. 

The objects of its organization were primarily the preserva- 
tion of the health of the soldiery while yet well, and their resto- 
ration to health when sick. For the first a system of general 
inspection was adopted, through which all information collected 
from reliable authorities and extended experience was dis- 
tributed through the army; frequent inspections of camp and 
hospitals by competent medical men, suggestions as to camp 
police, care of the men, condition of every thing pertaining to 
the comfort and health of the men, their food and the manner 
of cooking it, &c. &c., made to the medical and other officers of 
each regiment, with the hope of securing a generous spirit of 
rivalry among the regiments, each striving to secure for itself 
the reputation of being the best policed and the most perfect in 
the army. 

For the second purpose it established agencies throughout the 

331 



332 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

army for the distribution to the sick and wounded of such 
articles of necessity and luxury as were contributed by tKe 
people or purchased by funds donated to the Commission, — it 
being one of the fundamental principles of the organization 
that in all its work it should be eminently national, making no 
distinction between different classes of soldiers, and should act 
in harmony with the regularly constituted m^ilitary and medical 
authorities and be auxiliary to them, — that it should be, in 
fact, to the regular military and medical organization of the 
army what equity is to law : while the one is bound by neces- 
sary and rigid laws, adopted for the general good, but which 
bear with crushing hardship upon particular cases, the other 
should be flexible, ready to adapt itself to every emergency 
which may arise and leave no single case of suffering without 
a remedy. 

At the same time, aid societies were established in the cities, 
villages, and townshi2)s of all the loyal States, and in almost 
every town and hamlet busy fingers were preparing articles of 
necessity, comfort, and luxury for the soldiers, which were for- 
warded by irregular and uncertain channels of communication, 
often injured or ruined before reaching their destination, often 
lost by the way, and often appropriated in a manner not in 
accordance with the wishes of the donors. 

But, before the Department of the Cumberland was esta- 
blished, the United States Sanitary Commission had so j)erfected 
its agencies and systematized its mode of distribution of stores 
as to secure the confidence of the people; and to it the greater 
part of the local aid societies of the ISTorth had determined to 
intrust their contributions for general distribution, — the donors 
becoming convinced that they could best provide for the regi- 
ments in which they had an especial personal interest by 
uniting in a general effort to provide for all. The limits of this 
chapter will permit of only a brief notice of the w^ork of the 
Sanitary Commission in this department of the army, through 
the agencies thus noted and the means thus supplied. 

Medical inspectors, selected with care, and of established 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 333 

reputation, have passed from regiment to regiment tlirougliout 
the department, aiding the sui'geons in charge in securing the 
adoption of all precautions and sanitary measures which expe- 
rience has shown to be essential or conducive to the preserva- 
tion of the health of the soldiery. By these inspectors careful 
and elaborate reports have been made of the sanitary condition 
of every regiment, the kind of camp-police maintained, and the 
extent to which all the regulations of the service looking 
towards the preservation of the health of the men and the care 
of the sick have been observed, and the apparent influences 
thereby exerted upon the health of the men and the efficiency 
of the army, which reports have been forwarded to Washington. 
A more frequent but similar inspection has been made of the 
general hospitals in the department, in which the inspectors 
have united with the surgeons in a joint effort to discover 
and remedy all defects in the general management of the 
hospital. 

For the distribution of sanitary stores purchased by the Com- 
mission and intrusted, to it by the managers of the patriotic 
" aid societies" of the North and West, depots have been esta- 
blished at important points in the department occupied by the 
Union forces, with competent and efficient storekeepers in 
charge. It has been the purpose so to locate these that every 
hospital and regiment could be supplied from them, and to 
secure to each its appropriate share. In distributing these 
stores, the agents of the Commission have acted upon the pre- 
sumption that these stores w^ere designed for the sick soldier, 
and primarily for the enlisted soldier, but that in places where 
the impossibility of furnishing delicacies has placed the officer 
and soldier in this respect on an equality, both should be treated 
alike and each receive a share. They have found by expe- 
rience that these supplies — the articles of diet especially — must 
reach the sick, if they reach them at all, through the surgeons 
in charge, who are and must be held responsible for the diet as 
well as for the medicine administered to their sick, and who 
will not, and with safety to the patients cannot, allow outside 



334 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

volunteer agents to decide what they shall eat or drink, or to 
administer to them articles of diet witliout their approbation 
and direction. Compelled, thus, to act through the surgeons or 
abandon this part of their work, or, on the other hand, to dis- 
tribute to the well man the articles designed for the sick, the 
agents have found, what they believed to be true in the begin- 
ning, that as a class the surgeons of the army are deserving of 
the confidence of the donors, are as honest, efficient, and com- 
petent a class of workers as can be found in the army, and for 
this very purpose as reliable agents as could be selected for so 
large a field of operations. 

To enable the agents to account for all stores which have 
passed through their hands, and to fix where it justly belongs 
the responsibility of wastage and misappropriation should they 
occur, a full account is kept, showing where, when, to whom, 
and for what purpose, the goods have been distributed, and who 
has assumed the responsibility of their appropriation. Upon the 
establishment of a depot of stores, the surgeons in charge of 
hospitals and regiments are notified of the fact, and requested 
to send in an informal requisition, stating the number of their 
sick and naming the articles needed for their comfort. The 
quantities of each to be furnished are filled .in by the store- 
keeper in accordance with the supply on hand and the number 
of sick to be supplied, and the surgeons requested to call again 
for further supplies when they are exhausted. Every evening 
the requisitions thus filled are charged in general account to 
the hospital or regiment receiving them, and the requisitions are 
filed. These accounts are at all times open to the inspection 
of any one interested, and, if charges of misapproj)riation are 
made, enable the agents to investigate them with a certainty 
of reaching a correct conclusion. Special cases of want are at 
once relieved by the agents of the Commission, wherever found ; 
and on the same record an account of goods thus given out is 
kept, and the name and regiment of the recipient noted. By 
this means a steady and constant supply is afforded, which is 
distributed without confusion and without partiality, and an 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 335 

accumulation of stores in safe depots is secured for emergencies. 
In the rooms at Murfreesborough there is at present a large supply 
of hospital clothing, concentrated beef-tea, and other articles, not ^ 
now especially needed, but indispensable in case of a battle, and 
which, from the facilities for transportation afforded by Govern- 
ment, to be furnished at a moment's notice should a battle 
occur, will be used to feed and clothe the wounded before the 
news of the engagement can reach the home of a single soldier. 

"With the present mode of distributing these stores in this 
department, it may be confidently asserted that ninety per cent, 
of those received for general distribution reaches the sick enlisted 
soldier. That some are misappropriated, and some are stolen, 
is unquestionably true. And when the people who contribute 
them remember that, with all their locks and bolts, their sheinffs 
and constables, their marshals and police at home, in every ward 
and township, they are compelled to try, every week or every 
month, some one among them for stealing, they ought not to be 
surprised that this vice is not entirely eradicated from the army, — 
unless, indeed, they regard it as a great moral reform association, 
with the power of working miracles in that direction, — which is 
not the general impression here of the character of army in- 
fluences. On the whole, it is a matter of surprise and gratifica- 
tion to see how large a percentage of these stores does actually 
reach the sick; and it is believed that all that is now needed 
to satisfy their wants as completely as this can be done in the 
field is a more constant and liberal supply. 

A single instance will illustrate the benefits derived by the 
army from this part of the work of the Commission. Early in 
April it became apparent that the army was seriously suffer- 
ing from a long destitution of vegetable diet. Scurvy, or in- 
dications of it, appeared in almost every regiment, and the 
medical officers of the army became apprehensive of very serious 
results unless a remedy could be promptly applied. Some of 
them joined with the agents of the Commission in appropriate 
representations to the central office of the Western Department 
at Louisville, and to the branch associations in the principal 



336 ARMY OF TUE CUMBERLAND. 

cities of tlie "West. Potatoes, onions, pickles, &c. were sent for- 
ward, in response, in such liberal quantities that the agents having 
their disti'ibution in charge could say to all the surgeons of the 
army, " Let none of your men, whether in hospital or in quarters, 
suffer for the want of these vegetables. Give them to all, 
whether excused from duty or not, who show any symptoms 
of the approach of this disease. The supply will be kept up." 
It was kept up, thanks to the generous patriotism of the people ; 
and the plague was stayed. 

To relieve the anxiety of friends of the army at home, the 
hospital directory of the Commission has accomplished much. 
A statement of the working of the directory as it is, instead 
of a history of the labor of establishing it, must suffice for the 
limits of this article. Blanks for the morning reports of hos- 
pitals are furnished by the Commission to all the general hos- 
pitals in the West. The morning report shows all changes for 
the preceding day in the hospital, the name, rank, company, 
regiment, and disease of all who are admitted to the hospital, 
who die in it, or are transferred to other hospitals, or discharged 
to return to duty. The series, commencing with the establish- 
ment of the hospital, will furnish a hospital history of every 
soldier admitted to it. After being recorded at each post, these 
morning reports are forwarded from all the posts to the office at 
Louisville, where they are consolidated, recorded, and indexed : 
so that any one interested in the condition or fate of any soldier, 
by giving name, rank, company, regiment, in letter or tele- 
graphic inquiry, can ascertain whether he has been admitted 
into anj^ hospital, and, if so, his full hospital history. To make 
this directory a more perfect source of information, the list of 
casualties in different engagements, as they are made from time 
to time to the medical director of the department, are copied, 
and the copies forwarded to Louisville. If inquiries are made 
after soldiers whose names appear neither on the hospital re- 
cords nor the records of casualties, or if more specific or general 
information is desired, the matter is written or telegraphed to 
the agent nearest the camp of that particular regiment, who 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 337 

promptly furnishes all desired information, if it can in any way 
be obtained. Many aching hearts are daily relieved by the 
prompt and reliable intelligence they obtain in this manner 
from distant friends ; many sick in regimental hospitals are 
thus visited, and their condition communicated to inquiring 
fi'iends; the last parting words and farewell messages of many 
are gathered up and forwarded to bereaved homes, to be garnered 
in life's most precious memories. 

Another and not less important work of the Commission in 
this department has reference to the care of the discharged sol- 
dier. Too often in other armies the discharged soldier, worn 
out or broken down by hardships, and no longer fit for service, 
has been ruthlesslj' shuffled off as an excrescence, and beea 
" turned out," like an old horse, to die. Munificently as our 
Government has provided for the soldiers, it has left much to 
be done by other agencies in this particular. Many of the 
discharged soldiers are crippled by wounds or prostrated by 
disease ; and to such a ride in the ordinarily crowded railroad- 
car from Murfreesborough to Louisville, even when stimulated 
by the hope of meeting again the loved ones at home who have 
been long awaiting their return, has terrors more appalling 
than they ever experienced in the hardest fight. For such 
cases the Commission has fitted up hosj)ital cars, both on the 
Louisville & Nashville and the Nashville & Chattanooga Rail- 
roads, which are run in connection with the regular trains, but 
in charge of an agent of the Commission. The cars on the 
Chattanooga road have recently been burned ; but new ones are 
now building, with India-rubber springs, kitchen attached to the 
car, sleeping-berths, and every convenience that can be suggested 
for the comfortable carriage of the sick and wounded. These 
are the cars of honor, into which those alone are received who 
have been disabled or have worn themselves out in their coun- 
try's service, and in which all their wants are carefully j)rorided 
for. The soldier, taking one of these cars at Murfreesborough, 
on the arrival of the train at Nashville is received into the 
" Soldiers' Home," over the railroad depot, a hotel established. 

22 



338 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND, 

by the Commission for his special entertainment, where the 
exhibition of his discharge-papers or his crutch settles all bills, 
and where he receives all necessary aid in obtaining his pay, 
is directed on his route home, where to find similar places of 
entertainment at every necessary stopping-place on the way, 
where he can obtain food and lodging without charge, and, if 
entitled to a bounty or pension, or if he has any Government 
claim growing out of his military service, is directed to the 
proper parties, who will make out his papers without charge 
and forward them to the claim-agent of the Commission at 
Washington, who will secure as early attention to them as prac- 
ticable, and, when allowed and paid, the soldier receives the whole 
amount, without any deduction for attorney or claim-agent's 
fees. If — as daily happens — on the presentation of his discharge 
and final statement at the paymaster's office in Nashville the 
soldier finds that he cannot obtain his pay, on account of some 
informality in these papers, so that, from some careless erasure 
or other cause, he would be deprived of a part of that which is 
justly due him, he returns to the Soldiers' Home, and his papers, 
with a, memorandum of the defects to be remedied, are returned 
to Mv-rfreesborough or to the office nearest to his regiment, and 
the ageB.t writes immediately to the regiment, procures the 
necessary corrections and returns them by the next train to 
the soldier in the Soldiers' Home, who then receives his pay and 
goes on his way rejoicing. Visits to the regiments for this pur- 
pose and to answer the inquiries from the hospital directory or 
from friends at home, who write directly to the different offices, 
aid the agents in securing an impartial distribution and f\xithful 
application of the stores, as they thus learn the condition and 
wants of the r«giments. Thus brought directly in contact 
with the men, in and out of the hospitals, they can accurately 
ascertain how far they are supplied by the stores furnished, and 
promptly investigate any alleged case of misapplication. 

If the soldier finds his own way to the city, on arriving at 
Nashville he sees conspicuously posted through the streets a 
.handbill, of which the following is a copy : — 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 339 

" Discharged soldiers will find a resting-place and food without charge, 

also all needed assistance in regard to their papers and pay, at the Soldiers' 

Home of the United States Sanitary Commission, over the station-house of 

the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. 

*'L. Crane, 

"Special Eeli^ Agent U.S. Sanitary Commission, 
"Match 11, 1863." 



This guides him to the same asylum and place of relief, when 
the same helping hand is extended and the same kindness shown 
him as is here related. This bill, too, has attracted the notice 
of thousands of others, who else had been ignorant of the great 
work the Sanitary Commission is performing, and by them has 
been made the subject of favorable comment. 

It is found that these different branches of the work can be 
carried on systematically and without confusion, each one aiding 
in the work of all the others, and each seeking, as far as possible, 
to relieve every discovered want of the soldier. The agents 
have received the cordial co-operation of all the military and 
medical authorities of the depai'tment, and have had promptly 
extended to them every facility needed for the successful j)rose- 
cution of their work. 

In the hospital cars, and under the care of the agents of the 
Commission, are also forwarded the sick and disabled soldiers 
who, under the recent order of Surgeon-General Hammond, are 
transferred to the general hospitals nearest their homes.- All 
who have lived their allotted three months in hospital are 
placed within reach of their friends : from the hospitals of I^ash- 
ville alone over one thousand have already been sent forward ; 
and very many of them will owe their lives to the careful 
provision made for their comfortable transit by the Commis- 
sion, and to the attentive care of its accomplished agent, — Dr. 
Barnum, — who has charge of this branch of the work. 

The Commission also, without any extra expense or increase 
of its agencies, has provided for sending home the bodies of 
all soldiers who die in this department, if desired so to do by 
the friends of the deceased, when the undertaker's charges — 



340 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

at rates leas than the ordinary prices — are deposited to the 
credit of the Commission in Louisville, Chicago, Cincinnati, or 
Cleveland, and the name, rank, company, and regiment of the 
deceased soldier furnished. The agents of the Commission see 
that the work is promptly and properly done and the body for- 
warded. This saves to the friends the entire cost of a visit to 
the army, and enables them to secure the last remains of the 
soldier to be deposited with his kindred, at times when the 
exigencies of the service pi'ohibit visits to the army for that 
purpose. 

In part, also, the hospital gardens are the work of the Com- 
mission. It has furnished the seed to plant them, and the im- 
plements for their cultivation; and its agents have labored 
jointly with the medical director of the department, and with 
the surgeon in charge of the general field hospital near which 
the largest one is located, to secure thorough cultivation. One 
garden near Murfreesborough comprises about forty acres, most 
of which is already planted. A general variety of garden vege- 
tables is cultivated by convalescent and contraband labor, under 
the direction of a competent gardener, detailed for the purpose 
from the 101st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Already the fruits of 
this garden are beginning to come in. The health of the con- 
valescents is improving from this cause, added to their light 
labor in the garden. In the long hot days of summer, wjien 
the Korth cannot furnish vegetables which will bear transporta- 
tion to the army, the supplj^ of potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, 
peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, turnips, tomatoes, cabbages, cucum- 
bers, melons, squashes, corn, &c. &c., from the hospital gardens, 
will be of incalculable benefit to the sick, and will supply a 
want which at that time could be supplied in no other manner. 
Tlie other garden is at ISTashville, and will there prove of equal 
value. 

The general commanding the department has given emphatic 
testimony to the value of the work thus accomplished, in the 
following letter of approval, which is accompanied by one from 
Colonel Moody, of the 74th 0. V. I. These are given as a 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 341 

sample of many such, voluntarily sent to the agents of the 
Commission. 

"TESTIMONIAL OF MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS 

"Head-Quarters Department of the Cumberland, 
"MuRFREESBOROUGH, February 2. 

"The general commanding presents his warmest acknowledgments to the 
friends of the soldiers of this army, whose generous sympathy with the 
suffering of the sick and wounded has induced tliem to send for their com- 
fort numerous sanitary supplies, which are continually arriving, by the 
hands of individuals and charitable societies. While he highly appreciates 
and does not undervalue the charities which have been lavished on this 
army, experience has demonstrated the importance of system and impar- 
tiality, as well as judgment and economy, in the forwarding and distributing 
of these supplies. 

" In all these respects the United States Sanitary Commission stands 
unrivalled. Its organization, experience, and large facilities for the work 
are such that the general does not hesitate to recommend, in the most urgent 
manner, all those who desire to send sanitary supplies, to confide them to 
the care of this Commission. The}"^ will thus insure the supplies reaching 
their destination without wastage or expense of agents or transportation, 
and their being distributed in a judicious manner, without disorder or inter- 
ference with the regulations or usages of the service. This Commission acts 
in full concert with the medical department of the army, and enjoys its con- 
fidence. It is thus enabled with few agents to do a large amount of good at 
the proper time and in the proper way. Since the battle of Stone River it 
has distributed a surprisingly large amount of clothing, lint, bandages, and 
bedding, as well as milk, concentrated beef, fruit, and other sanitary stores 
essential to the recovery of the sick and wounded. 

" W. S. RoSECRANS, 

'^ Major- General commanding Dejyartment." 

* 

" LETTER OF COLONEL MOODY. 

"Mdrfreesborough, Tennessee, February 5. 
"Dr. a. N. Read, Inspector United States Sanitary Commission: 

" Sir: — I desire to express to you, and through you to the generous and 
patriotic donors sustaining the Sanitary Commission, my high appreciation 
cf the works of love in which they are engaged. As I have visited the 
various hospitals in this place, and looked upon the pale faces of the suf- 
ferers, and marked the failing strength of many a manly form, I have rejoiced 
in spirit as I have seen your benevolence embodied in substantial forms of 
food, delicacies, and clothing, judiciously and systematically distributed by 
thv)8e who are officially connected with the army. 

" If the donors could only know how much good their gifts have done, and 
could but hear the blessings invoked upon their unknown friends by the 



342 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Buffering ones, they would more fully realize the divine proverb, ' It is more 
blessed to give than to receive.' 

" We would advise all who wish to extend the hand of their charity so as to 
reach the suffering officers and soldiers who have stood ' between their loved 
homes and foul war's desolation,' to commit their offerings to the custody 
of 'the United States Sanitary Commission,' an organization authorized by 
the Secretary of War and the Surgeon-General, having the confidence of the 
army, and affording a direct and expeditious medium of communication with 
the several divisions of the army, free of expense to the donors and entirely 
reliable in its character. It is also worthy of special note that the goods 
intrusted to the Commission are distributed to those who are actually sick 
or convalescent, and this is done under the security of the most responsible 
persons in its employ, and through regularly established official agencies in 
the army. If the patriotic donors of the several States would direct their 
contributions into this channel, it would save much expense of agencies, 
blend the sympathies of Union men of the several States, and prevent un- 
patriotic distinctions in the patients in the hospitals, who are from every 
regiment and from every State. Side by side they fought and were wounded, 
and side by side they suffer in the hospitals, and the Commission, through 
appropriate agencies, extends its aid alike to the sons of Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee, Michigan and Mis- 
souri, thus giving prominence to our cherished national motto, 'We are 
many in one.' As an illustration, the other day an agent of a Wisconsin 
society came to a hospital with sanitary goods for Wisconsin soldiers, and 
went along the wards making careful discrimination in behalf of Wisconsin 
soldiers, but soon saw that it was an ungracious task, and handed over his 
goods to the United States Sanitary Commission. Learning this, one of the 
Wisconsin soldiers said, 'I am glad of that; for it made me feel so bad 
when my friends gave me those good things the other day, and passed by 
that Illinois boy on the next bed there, who needed them just as much as I 
did; but I made it square, for I divided what I got with him.' Brave, 
noble fellow ! his was the true spirit of a soldier of the United States. We 
have a common country, language, religion, interest, and destiny ; and we 
should closely weave the web of our unity, so that the genius of liberty 
may, like Him ' who went about doing good,' wear 'a seamless garment.' 
We believe in the constitutional rights of States, but most emphatically 
believe in our glorious nationality, which, like the sun amidst the stars, bas 
a surpassing glory and is of infinitely greater importance, and should be 
cherished in every appropriate form of development. 

"Granville Moody, 
"Colonel commanding 74<A Regiment 0. V.I. 



If it be asked who has sustained the Commission in this 
work, furnished it means and money to carry it on, and con- 
tributed the clothing, dressings, articles of diet and luxury dis- 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 343 

tributed, take the census of the people of all the loyal States, 
deduct therefrom the names of those who are sympathizers 
with the rebels in their effort to overthrow the Government, 
and the residue of the names will be those of the donors. Or 
if it be asked who among the ladies of the North — for in a 
great measure this is their work — are deserving of jespecial 
mention for their patriotic and zealous efforts, it may be truth- 
fully answered, the record of their names would occupy too 
much space for the limits of this chapter or volume, and it 
would be invidious to give the names of a few to the exclusion 
of many others equally worthy. 

Of the agents of the Commission who have been brought in 
contact with the officers and soldiers of this army, a few words 
may be appropriately added. 

Among these, as entitled to the first place, as he is first in 
rank, stands the accomplished secretary of the Western Depart- 
ment of the Commission, Dr. J. S. Newberry, of Cleveland, 
Ohio, more recently of Washington. His superior scientific 
and general knowledge, his com^jrehensive mind, and his general 
acquaintance with the best men of the whole country, pointed 
him out upon the organization of the Commission. At the be- 
ginning he was placed in charge of the Western Department, 
comprising the whole of the army west of the Alleghanies, 
and has ever since had the superintendence of that large 
field. He has selected the agents, assigned them their duties, 
established posts, kept up the communication between the Com- 
mission and the people by public addresses, letters, and rej)orts, 
exhibited the working and wants of the Commission, and at all 
times has discharged duties not less arduous and comprehensive, 
and hardly less important, than those of the military com- 
mander of a department. His energy and devotion to the 
work, his judgment, accurate in deciding, prompt in executing, 
have endeared him to the people and the army, and all agree 
that, for once at least, the right man has been assigned to the 
right place. 

When the army of the Union fii'st entered Kentucky, Dr. A. 



344 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLA.ND. 

N. Eead, a physician of high standing and long experience, was 
summoned by telegraph to assume the duties of inspector for 
the Commission and follow the army in its progress South. 
He immediately gave up a lucrative pi-actice, and has since 
labored incessantly and efficiently in the various departments 
of the \Vest. When the Department of the Cumberland was 
established, the general superintendence of the work of the 
Commission in that department was intrusted to him. Under 
his management there has been no conflict or jealousy between 
the Commission and the authorities, mutual confidence has cha- 
racterized their intercourse, and the whole work of the Com- 
mission has been so thoroughly systematized and perfected 
that it is difficult to say in what particular it can be improved. 
His head-quarters are for the present at JSTashville, — although 
he makes frequent visits to all parts of the field, and when an 
engagement occurs is sure to be promptly at hand, aiding in 
the care of the wounded and directing his subordinates in the 
distribution of stores. 

Mr. J. H. Eobinson, of Cleveland, Ohio, is the storekeeper at 
Nashville. Mr. L. Crane, assisted by Mr. Merwin, — for a long 
time the storekeeper at Murfreesborough, — has charge of the 
Soldiers' Home at Nashville. 

At Murfreesborough, M. C. Eead, Esq., an attorney from 
Northern Ohio, has the general charge of the work, aided by 
Mr. Crasey, the attentive storekeeper. 

.The medical inspectoi*s have no local head-quarters, but follow 
the army. Dr. Castleman and Dr. Bettleheim, thorough workers, 
and men of marked ability, are now with the army, acting in 
that capacity, and are just completing a renewed and systematic 
inspection of the whole army. 

In closing this chapter, a few words may appropriately be 
added respecting female help in the hospitals. The Commission 
sends no ladies into the field as its agents, we are informed, but 
wherever it finds them doing u good work aids and encourages 
them. To the volunteer labors of many ladies the sick in the 
ospitals at Murfreesborough owe much,— many, their lives; all, 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 3 45 

very many comforts. Their labors here are especially mentioned 
because the writer has been stationed at this post and is not so 
familiar with their work elsewhere. They have not come here 
to control the hospitals, to assume authority over the surgeons 
and attendants; they have not come to gain a reputation or 
newspaper notoriety, but to do good as they should find oppor- 
tunity. Assuming cheerfully such duties as the surgeon in 
charge assigned them, they have from day to day prej)ared the 
food of the low-diet patients, superintended the cooking and 
washing for all, aided much in securing neatness and cheerful- 
ness throughout the hospitals, and, when the wards are put in 
order for the day, by tTieir frequent visits and encouraging con- 
versation with the sick and wounded have cheered their hearts, 
alleviated their loneliness, and have prompted many a poor 
soldier to thank God for the sunshine they have brought to his 
despairing heart. 



ghe Jlrmg |otire and its djhief. 

The police and scout service — one of the most interesting and 
important departments of the army — can have no better or more 
appropriate introduction than a sketch of the life of its origin- 
ator and head. 

William Truesdail, Chief of Police in the Army of the Cum- 
berland, was born in Chautauqua county, New York, January 9, 
1815, of American parents. At the age of eleven years he was 
bound to a merchant of Erie, Pennsylvania, at fifty dollars a 
year and three months' schooling, — but got no schooling. In 
the fall of 1835 he was elected deputy sheriff and police justice. 
"While holding these positions, he devoted much attention to 
police-matters, and gained quite a local reputation for the skill 
displayed in investigating and developing numerous complicated 
and startling cases of fraud and crime. In a single instance 
nearly thirty thousand dollars was recovered by his agency. 
In the fall of 1836 he engaged in real-estate speculations, and in a 
short time cleared over fifty thousand dollars, having at one period 
between forty thousand and fifty thousand dollars cash in bank. 
In the general failure of 1837 this fortune was lost, with th« 
exception of two or three thousand dollars. In 1838 he was 
appointed specie teller by the directors of the United States 
Branch Bank at Erie, and was confirmed as such by Nicholas 
Biddle, president of the parent institution. Six months after- 
wards he was made travelling agent for said bank, and continued 
in its service until its failure in 1841. 

He then turned his attention to merchandizing at Erie, and 

remained in that business until 1847. By this time he had 

again accumulated a handsome competence, which was mostly 

lost in the crisis of the same year. We next hear of him as a 
316 




^Vfe.^--^'"---"^ 



J B LIPPmCOTT &. CO.PHILAD*- 



THE ARMY POLICE AND ITS CHIEF. 347 

contractor on the Lake Shore Eailroad, from Erie to the Penn- 
sylvania State line, where he continued some two years, and 
until the road was nearly completed, finishing in that time four 
miles of heavy cut and realizing a handsome profit from his 
contract. In 1849 the Panama Eailroad Company was organized ; 
and in the fall of that year he made an arrangement with John 
L. Stephens, and others, of New York, to go out and superintend 
the building of the road across the Isthmus, at a salary of six 
thousand dollars a year and expenses paid. He left New York 
in November, 1849, taking with him two hundred and fifty men, 
having arranged for the forwarding of subsequent instalments 
of laborers in similar numbers. He remained on the Isthmus 
one year, in which time he completed the work across the 
Chagres swamp. Through all the terrible mortality which at- 
tended the construction of that work, and by which many thou- 
sands of lives are known to have been lost, his health was not 
materially affected by the climate. Of the fourteen hundred 
men, however, who were sent out to him, not more than three 
hundred returned alive. On his arrival at New York he was 
highly complimented by the Board of Directors, and was offered 
ten thousand dollars a year to return and superintend the com- 
pletion of the enterprise. He accepted the proposition; but 
before the arrangements were fully effected the balance of the 
work was let to a private company. 

In the fall of 1851 he proceeded to the West as the agent of 
H. C. Seymour & Co., and took charge of the western division 
of the Ohio & Mississippi Eailroad, in conjunction with Pro- 
fessor 0. M. Mitchel (late Major-General Mitchel, deceased), who 
was then chief engineer and bond commissioner of that great 
work. When the road was located and the money secured to 
build it, in company with others, he took large contracts in its 
construction, and built over sixty miles of the road betAveen 
Sandoval and St. Louis. The same company, composed of three 
capitalists, subsequently built the St. Louis & Belleville Eail- 
road, fifteen miles in length, the St. Louis & Alton Eoad, twenty 
miles in length, and the North Missouri Eoad for some sixty 



348 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

miles. These projects occupied some twelve years, and re- 
sulted largely to the profit of the contractors, although much 
of it was lost by the failure of the various companies to meet 
their payments. In these and many of his earlier operations 
the colonel lost heavily, indeed; but he never /a«7e(i, — was never 
unable to meet promptly and fully all his obligations, — a fact 
alike remarkable and creditable in a business career of such 
great and varied extent. 

In 1860, with two others, he embarked in the construction of 
the railroad from New Orleans to Houston, Texas, a distance of 
three hundred and twenty miles, and had completed and put it in 
operation from Houston to the Sabine River — one hundred and 
ten miles — at the outbreak of the rebellion. This great road, in 
which the colonel will have an immense fortune upon the return 
of peace and good times, is intended to be a national Southern 
route, connecting New Orleans w^ith the Eio Grande, and thence 
across the country to the Gulf of California and the mouth of 
Yuba Eiver. It crosses the Delta of the Mississippi and the 
high level plains of Texas, which latter were found so smooth 
and ready for the track that it was laid upon the grass for some 
sixty miles, the earth from the ditches at the side forming the 
filling between the ties. 

Upon the fall of Fort Sumter the secession element in the 
State became too strong to be endured by Northern men, and 
early in May, soon after the violent deposition of Governor 
Houston, Colonel Truesdail left Texas and came to Missouri. 
Upon General Pope taking command of the army in North- 
western Missouri, he was appointed military superintendent of 
the North Missouri Railroad. Soon after, General Pope was 
recalled to St. Louis; and the colonel then contracted to supply 
General Grant's army with beef, and continued the business 
under General Jefferson C. Davis, and again under General Pope 
Avhcn he re-entered the field. With him he also had charge of 
the police and secret service, the scouts and couriei's, and t.he 
forwarding of mails and despatches; and in these and other 
labors he performed valuable service in that wild, iuter-.or 



THE ARMY POLICE AND ITS CHIEF. 849 

jountry. Throughout the New Madrid, Island No. 10, and Fort 
Pillow campaign, in the trip up the Tennessee, and during the 
operations in front of and beyond Corinth, he remained with 
General Pope, by whom the worth of his great services was 
fi'eely and constantly acknowledged. When the latter general 
was ordered to Virginia, he invited Colonel Truesdail to go with 
him; but, preferring to remain in the West, where his family 
reside and his property is, and where he believed he would be 
more useful, he declined the invitation. 

General itosecrans, upon assuming command of the Army of 
the Mississippi, retained the colonel in his position. The com- 
pletely unsettled condition of aifairs in Mississij^pi at that time 
gave room for the display of his peculiar genius. The army mail 
and jiolice service were irregular in their workings, and scarcely 
more than nominal in their existence. A new and complete 
organization of each was soon effected. Military mail-agents 
were placed on the boats and trains, and offices opened all 
along the route between Cairo and Corinth. A police system 
was put into operation that began at once to be felt throughout 
the arm}' and all the country within our lines. The first arrest 
made under it was that of a high official in General Grant's em-^ 
ploy, who was convicted of the fraudulent appropriation of seve- 
ral thousand dollars, and sentenced by that general to two years' 
imprisonment. Colonel Truesdail continued in this department 
until the assignment of General Eosecrans to the command of 
the Department of the Cumberland, when he was induced to 
accompany the general to his new field of operations, — although, 
personally, he was disinclined to longer service, having now 
been actively and constantly engaged since the beginning of 
the war, absent all the while from his home and family. 

At Bowling Green the army mail system was organized, and 
policemen were put at work, not only there, but in the larger 
tcwns along the line of the Louisville & Nashville Eailroad, 
and a surprising amount of knavery, smuggling, and guerrilla- 
ism was discovered. Upon reaching Nashville the police busi- 
ness at once assumed vast proportions. The city was full of 



850 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLANB. 

violent and confessed rebels, most of whom were both smugglers 
and spies, as opportunity offered. The army had drawn thither 
its usual corrupt and festering element of camp-followers. The 
entire community was rotten, morally and socially. Murder, 
robbery, drunkenness, and all the nameless vices of rebeldom 
and war, were openly and shamelessly rampant. The Govern- 
ment was victimized at every turn. Horses and mules, stolen 
from neighboring farms and stables, w^ere hawked about the 
streets for purchasers, at prices ranging from ten to fifty dollars 
per head. Arms were pilfered and sold for a trifle. Boots, 
shoes, uniforms, camp-equipage, ammunition, and supplies of 
every kind, serviceable to the rebel army, were daily sent 
beyond our lines in every possible way that the ingenuity of 
bad men and women could devise. 

In our necessarily contracted sj^ace we cannot hope to give 
even an outline of the work accomplished by the army police. 
SujSice it to say that in a short time its influence was felt in 
every part of the city and army. His patrols were upon every 
road leading from the city, arresting and searching rebel emis- 
saries, and at times confiscating considerable amounts of con- 
traband goods. His detectives were in every hotel, and upon 
cars and steamers. Assuming the role of rebel sympathizers, 
they were introduced into the proudest and wealthiest secession 
families. Passing themselves off, in many cases, as spies of 
"Wheeler, Bragg, and Morgan, they acquainted themselves with 
the secrets, the hopes, and the intentions of that entire people. 
Men were also busy among our own camps, detecting army vice 
and fraud. Their searching eyes were on the several army 
departments, hospitals, theatres, houses of ill-fame, and every 
centre of public interest. A minute report of all these investi- 
gations and their results would thrill the land; but better that 
It be not told to blanch the cheek and chill the heart of many 
a true wife and fond parent. 

Many offenders thus detected were vigorously dealt with ; 
and yet the police record's of the department reveal instances 
of young men made wiser and better by the kindness shown 



THE ARMY POLICE AND ITS CHIEF, 351 

and the advice given them. Humane, benevolent, and far-seeing, 
yet prompt to visit with merited punishment the hardened 
offender, none more ready than our Chief of Police to temper 
justice with mercy. The many instances of charity to the 
destitute, of forgiveness to youthful follies of the young men 
whom he has aided and counselled, of widows and orphans he 
assisted to fuel and bread during the hard winter at Nashville, 
of the young women found in male attire whom he and his 
assistants have decently clothed and sent to their homes, and 
of deserted children for whom he has found asylums, would of 
themselves fill many pages of this work. 

In bi'ief, the influence of the army police was felt in every 
ramification of army and city life throughout the Department 
of the Cumberland. True, errors and wrongs may have been 
committed by its ofiicials ; many an arrest may have been made 
without good reason therefor, and many goods seized that ought 
to have been untouched; true, many bad men may have wormed 
themselves into its service ; but, where such has been the case, 
none more ready to make restitution, none more severe in 
punishment of official treachery and knavery, than its justice- 
loving chief All in all, he has done well, and has exercised the 
utmost care in the selection of his subordinates. For be it 
alwaj^s remembered that there are but few men fitted for the 
business of a detective, and a still less number are found who 
will follow it. In large cities, and with armies, the detective is 
a necessity; and yet it is a profession whose follower is and 
must be one continued counterfeit. Bad men can make it de- 
testable; but pure-minded, upright ofllcers, operating secretly 
and in disguise though they may, can jDcrform their duties with 
marvellous certainty in the detection of crime, with incalculable 
benefit to the public, and without injury to the innocent. 

That the most worthy motives actuate the subject of this 
sketch in all his official dealings, the author has abundant reason 
to know. Colonel Truesdail (he is called " colonel" by general 
consent, though a civilian and quite regardless of titles) is pos- 
sessed of a handsome private fortune, which thus far has been 



852 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

diminished, rather than increased, by his army labors. Though 
a Southern man as regards the location of a great portion of 
his property and by reason of many years' residence in the 
slave States, he has been an original and uncompromising friend 
of the Union. 

The results of the army police operations have been immense, 
both in gain to the Government and prevention of crime. Hun 
dreds of horses and mules have been seized and turned over tc 
the quartermaster's department. Scores of smugglers and spies 
have been detected and punished, thus largely curtailing this 
under-ground trade, alike beneficial to the rebels and detrimental 
to us. Large amounts of goods and medicines have been con- 
fiscated and sold, where the parties implicated were found fla- 
grante delicto ; and thus this branch of the army has considerably 
more than repaid its entire cost to the Government. Connectea 
with it, also, is the spy department, from which a line of com- 
munication has been constantly maintained throughout the rebel 
States, to tlic extreme limits of the Southern Confederacy. This 
mteresting feature in its operations, systematic as it is under 
the watchful eye of the Chief of Police and under the personal 
direction of the general commanding, must, for obvious reasons, 
be imagined rather than described. 

To illustrate the efficiency of the army police, a few of the 
very many cases of smuggling, spying, and treachery which it 
has developed are related elsewhere in this volume. They are 
compiled from the records ; and, strange and improbable as some 
of them may seem, they are essentially truthful narratives of 
actual occurrence. Indeed, the facts are necessarily greatly 
abbreviated in a publication so comprehensive as this, the mi- 
nutiae — the smaller lines and threads which contribute to the 
beauty of the woof — being unavoidably omitted. 

As may be readily supposed, such an extensive army organiza- 
tion ere long attained considerable notoriety. It marshalled its 
friends and its enemies in almost regimental numbers. Even 
in the army it has been violently assailed, — not only by the 
vicious in the ranks, but by officers whose evil deeds were not 



THE ARMY POLICE AND ITS CIIIEP. 353 

past finding out. If any direct charge was made, however, to 
General Eosecrans, it Avas at once and fully investigated ; and 
in no one instance has the charge been maintained, as affecting 
the good character of its chief or of his principal aids. The 
breath of calumny has been even wafted to the Presidential 
ears, and the newsj)apers of last spring contained the announce- 
ment that a special commission had been appointed at Wash- 
ington to investigate the operations of the police of the Army 
of the Cumberland. Many weeks elapsed, and tliis was not 
done. At the solicitation of its chief and his assistants, Gene- 
ral Eosecrans then appointed a sjiecial inspector, Captain Temple 
Clark, formerly a member of his staff in Mississippi, and now 
chief upon the staff of Brigadier-General Johnson, to examine 
into the operations of his army police, and report. A portion 
of that report is herewith subjoined; and it constitutes an 
appropriate conclusion to our chapter : — > 

"Nashville, Tenn., June 2, 1S63. 

"Major:— 

" In compliance with your instniction!?. I have made a fhorotigh exami- 
nation of the books and papers connected with the Army Police Office and its 
operations in this department since its first organization, and I respectfully 
Bubmit the following report as the result of my investigations. 

" In arriving at facts and conclusions, I have taken advantage of every 
source of information at my disposal, except that of instituting a ' court of 
inquiry' and putting witnesses under oath. 

" I find that the records of the operations of this institution, together witli 
all important papers and vouchers connected therewith, have been kept with 
correctness and system, so that almost any ofiScial act of its employes can 
he easily traced from its inception to its result. This order and system 
greatly facilitated my investigation, and reflects credit upon the chief and 
his subordinates. 

" The number of employes in this department, including scouts, spies, 
policemen, judges, clerks, mail-agents, &c., has at no one time exceeded 
fifty, although a much larger number appear to have been employed during 
the term of its existence, — most of them for short periods only. The expenses 
of the department from the middle of November, 1862, to June 1, 1863, are 
as follows : — 

' For mail-service, six months and a half, $3,320 ; for salaries of clerks,, 
scouts, and policemen in secret service, $66,564.55 ; making a lotal of 
expenses, including the military custom-house at Nashville, of $69,884 55 ; 

23 



354 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

of which {imount the sum of $52,924.25 expenses up to May 1 have been paic^ 
and the vouchers received and on file. 

" The balance of $16,960 is for the expenses and disbursements for the 
month of May, not yet settled, though the amount is ascertained. 

" Much of this last amount is for service rendered prior to the 1st of May 
last, and principally for secret service. 

" The Army Police Department has seized and turned over to authorized 
agents of the Government, up to June 1, 1863, property to the value of 
$438,000. 

"This property consisted of arms and ordnance stores, which have been 
turned over to ordnance officers ; medical stores to a large amount which 
were found in the act of being smuggled through the lines to the enemy, — 
some of it stolen from our hospitals, — all being turned over to the medical 
director ; and large quantities of goods and merchandise, which has been 
turned over to the custom-house officer and to the quartermaster. 

" There has been placed in the hands of the United States District Attor- 
ney, with testimony for confiscation, the following property : — 

" Stock of goods of Stewart & Co., Nashville, $25,000 ; stock of goods of 
Morgan & Co., Nashville, $35,000 ; stock of goods of Wilder & Co., Louis- 
ville, $80,000 ; gold from Mr. Lee, $109,000. 

" For all the property thus disposed of, proper receipts and vouchers have 
been taken, and are now on file in the office, an abstract of which is here- 
unto annexed. 

" Had the sphere of its usefulness ended here, the record of the army 
police would show well, and amply justify the wisdom of the commanding 
general in its establishment; but the great pecuniary profit arising to the 
Government from this institution is the least of its advantages ; and the 
record of its services shows a long array of benefits to the army and the 
Government, only known to the members confidentially engaged in its 
service, 

" The most important of these I propose to enumerate. 

" 1st. Through the agency of the secret police, especially selected for 
the service required, many rebel spies and smugglers have been arrested 
and brought to justice within this department, and information obtained 
and transmitted leading to the arrest of many more outside of the 
department. 

^' 2d. The detection and prevention, to a great extent, of stealing in the 
army by officers and men ; more particularly the stealing of horses and 
mules, at one time very extensively practised by both citizens and soldiers, 
now almost entirely suppressed through the successful vigilance of the 
army police. Over five hundred horses and mules stolen from the Govern- 
ment have been recovered by this organization and turned back to the 
proper channel. 

" 3d. Discovering frauds on the soldiers, attempted to be perpetrated by 
Northern houses through the agency of swindling advertisements and the 
circulation of obscene prints and books. These last have been seized to a 



THE ARMY POLICE AND ITS CSIEP. 355 

large extent, atd destroyed, and a considerable amount of money which 
was being transmitted to these impostors has been returned by the police 
to the respective owners through army postmasters. A record has been 
kept, showing that each sum thus stopped and returned was duly received. 

" 4th. A perfect system of detection, reaching to the closets of traitors, 
and discovering who vrere the secret enemies of the Government within our 
lines, and guarding against their treasonable operations. 

"5th. The employment of skilful scouts and spies to operate within and 
about the enemy's lines and furnish intelligence for the information of the 
commanding general. These men have been carefully selected for their 
peculiar duties. Most of them are well acquainted with the country and 
the inhabitants where they operate, and possess tact, self-possession, and 
nerve to a high degree. 

" 6th. A record of the character and political sympathies of nearly every 
adult inhabitant of the section of country through and in which the Army 
of the Cumberland has operated. 

" 7th. Knowledge and investigation of secret political societies, North 
and South, having for their object opposition to the Government and the 
prosecution of the war. 

" 8th. The detention and return of deserters, — of whom more than eight 
hundred have been arrested by the army police alone, and over two-thirds 
of whom would not have been reached through other sources. 

" 9th. Discovering and forwarding lost or stolen property belonging to 
officers and soldiers. The value of property so recovered and forwarded, or 
turned over to the authorized Government officers, exceeds $100,000. 

" 10th. Detection and exposure of fraud and irregularities in the military 
hospitals and other army departments, and the great improvement in the con- 
dition of our hospitals, which is chiefly due to the able medical officers more 
recently in charge of these institutions ; yet a good share of credit is due to 
the detection, exposure, and punishment of grave abuses therein by the 
agents of the army police, who first occasioned the reforms by showing the 
necessity therefor. 

" 11th. The Army Directory, a record showing every regiment and 
detachment in the Department of the Cumberland, — in what brigade, 
division, and corps, and where stationed. This record is continued and 
every change noted. It contains also the name rank, company, and regi- 
ment of every officer and soldier who dies in the department, whether in 
camp or hospital ; where he died, and where buried ; the cause of death, 
and any circumstance necessary to be recorded as to the disposition of his 
effects, &c. The record has an alphabetical index attached. 

"12th. The transmission of the mails done under the direction of its 
chief and by the employes of the army police. The mails have been 
delivered with surprising regularity and safety to every division and brigade 
in the army. 

"That an institution like the army police, so vast and varied in its 
operations, assailing so many in their pecuniary, personal, and political 



656 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Interests, should have powerful and numerous enemies, is not to be wondered 
at ; and that this enmity should develop itself in complaints and accusa- 
tions is natural. 

" Knowing this condition of public sentiment, I have inquired among all 
classes of people for the grounds of complaint against this institution. 
While I heard many general charges asserted and suspicions insinuated by 
persons who upon general principles or from personal motives believed 
that wrongs had been perpetrated and that the members of the army 
police were guilty of dishonest practices, I was only able to hear of one 
definite charge. 

" This was a case where a valuable carriage — the property of a young 
lady — was said to have been seized and confiscated by the army police and 
then appropriated to the private use of members of the police force. The 
person making the statement to me merely gave it as a rumor, saying that 
he knew nothing of the facts, and had no positive reason for believing it, 
he making the statement only because I was asking for charges. 

" An investigation showed that the carriage in question was the property 
of a secession family, the head of which had gone South : it was found 
secreted in separate parts and places, was taken by the police, and imme- 
diately turned over to the custom-house officer, who receipted for it and 
subsequently sold it at auction for five hundred dollars, and the proceeds 
were turned over to the Government. 

"I would therefore earnestly recommend that the army police be continued 
as a branch of your department. Professional villains can only be matched 
by professional detectives. The one turns every resource of his nature, 
mental and physical, to the successful perpetration of crime ; and he can 
only be circumvented by one who concentrates all his powers to detection 
and prevention. 

" Very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"Temple Clark, 
" Captain and Assistant Adjutant- General, 

" Special Inspector." 



HISTORY 



ORGANIZATION, THE EXPEDITIONS, AND THE BATTLES 

OF THE 

ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



CONTENTS. 



ORGANIZATION AND EARLY OPERATIONS. 

ADVANCE TO BOWLING GREEN AND NASHVILLE. 

OCCUPANCY OF NASHVILLE. 

BATTLE AND SDRRENDER OF HARTSVILLE. 

wheeler's DEFEAT BY MATTHEWS'S BRIGADE. 

CAPTURE OP FRANKLIN. 

BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 

WHEELER'S REPULSE AT LAVERGNE. 

OUR ARMY AT MURFREESBOROUGR. 

FORAGING AND SCOUTING EXPEDITIONS. 

REBEL REPULSE AT FORT DONELSON. 



BATTLE OP SPRING HILL. 

SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION OF SHERIDAN'S DIVISION. 

BATTLE OF MILTON. 

EXPEWIION OF WILDER'S BRIGADE. 

VAN DORN'S ATTACK ON FRANKLIN. 

CAPTURE OF MCMINNVILLE.. 

EXPEDITION TO NORTHERN GEORGIA. 

ADVANCE UPON TULLAHOMA, AND REBEL RETREAT 

FROM TENNESSEE. 
CAMPAIGN OF CHATTANOOGA, AND BAITLE OF 

CHICKAMAUGA. 



ORGANIZATION AND EARLY OPERATIONS OF 
THE ARMY. 



A COMPREHENSIVE histoi'j of our ai-my, however brief it may 
be, necessarily carries the reader back to the commencement 
of the rebellion, — from whence we follow it, from its incep- 
tion, and through the campaign of General Buell, down to the 
present time. The few pages thus occupied will be as valuable 
as interesting. 

The beginning of what is now the Army of the Cumberland, 
the nucleus around which our magnificent army has aggregated. 
was a small body of Kentucky volunteers, assembled, undei 
Colonel — now JMajor-General — Eousseau, at Camp Joe Holt, neai 
Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring and early summer of 1861 
From this force was oi'ganized the Louisville Legion Infantry, 
the 2d Kentucky Cavalry, Stone's Battery of Artillery, and 
two companies qf infantry which proved to be the beginning of 
the 6th Kentucky Infantry Eegiment. 

Prior to the assembling of this force, General Eousseau, in 

the Senate of Kentucky, was the fearless and eloquent advocate 

of loyalty to the Union. His words were confirmed by his 

deeds. He descended from his place in the Senate, and, raising 

the banner of his country, called upon all true Kentuckians to 

rally around it. In answer to his call there was soon assembled 

a force of nearly two thousand men. This was in the day when 

public opinion in Kentucky was unsettled; her Governor was a 

secessionist, and anxious to join the State to the " Confederacy;" 

her trusted commander of the organized Militia State Guard, 

359 



360 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

now the rebel General Simon B. Buckner, "was plotting treason, 
aiming to commit his force to a position in opposition to the 
Government. Many of her leading citizens were avowedly and act- 
ively disloyal, some of them, in the end, joining the rebel forces 
then assembling just beyond the southern border of the State, 
and all were using their whole influence to entice others to 
follow their wild example. The great body of citizens, however, 
did not openly favor the rebellion, nor the transfer of the State 
to the Confederacy: some were intimidated, probably, by the 
clamor, and hence declared themselves neutral ; some adoj)ted 
neutrality as a principle, others as an expedient: the first 
declared that Kentucky had nothing to do with the quarrel, 
which the belligerents might fight out at their leisure, and that 
they would repel by force of arms either party should they 
attempt to enter the State. This was tantamount to secession; 
for it assumed that the State was not a part of the nationality 
of the United States, but a nation of itself, with a right to stand 
aloof while other States, considered to be other nations, were 
contending around her. Those who resorted to this neutrality 
as an expedient hoped by that course to save the State from 
being prematurely committed to the rebellion during the first 
agitation, as had been done in Tennessee, Xorth Carolina, and 
other States. 

But beyond and above ail these were the valiant few who 
patriotically proclaimed their brave and unconditional loyalty 
aloud, and flew to arms in answer to their country's call. The 
men under Eousseau, who assembled at Camp Joe Holt, were of 
this stamp. As early as June, 1861, there was a considerable 
force thus assembled; and they w^ere speedily organized and 
accepted into the service of the United States. Such were also 
those raised, about the same time, by the late Major-General 
Nelson, at Camp Dick Eobinson, in Garrard county, a more 
eastern part of the State. To these should also be added the 
two Kentucky regiments previously raised, who were at that 
time serving in Western Virginia. 

In May, all Kentucky within a hundred miles south of the 



ORGANIZATION AND EARLY OPERATIONS. 361 

Ohio Eiver had been made a military department, and Brigar 
dier-General Eobert Anderson had been assigned to its com- 
mand. Early in September, he established his head-quarters at 
Louisville; and just about that time the rebel enemy on the 
Mississippi invaded the State, taking possession of Hickman 
and Columbus. They then intended to strike at once for 
Paducah, on the Ohio Eiver; but Federal troops from Cairo, 
belonging to General Fremont's command, had anticipated 
them. But the day ever memorable in the annals of Kentucky 
and of the Army of the Cumberland is the 17th day of Sep- 
tember, 1861. On that day war was fully inaugurated in the 
region of country lying between the AUeghanies and the Mis- 
sissippi, and on that day General Eousseau's men from Camp 
Joe Holt, the initial element of the Army of the Cumberland, 
marched out to repel invasion. The rebel General Buckner, 
starting from Camp Boone, in Tennessee, just beyond the Ken- 
tucky line, attempted to reach the Ohio Eiver at Louisville by 
the jSTashville & Louisville Eailroad. He meditated a surprise. 
There had been no intimation of his coming; but the train from 
Nashville due in Louisville early in the evening did not arrive, 
and the telegraph-wares had that day been cut. The managers 
of the road, suspecting no more than an ordinaiy accident, sent 
out a train to relieve the one expected. This did not return ; 
and then a single engine was sent out. The trains had been 
seized by the enemy; but from the single engine a fireman 
escaped, and soon returned to Louisville with the news, having 
obtained a hand-car. General Anderson sent orders at once to 
Eousscau to move out wath his men on the road, they, with the 
Home Guards of Louisville, being Anderson's only available 
force. The camp w^as on the opposite side of the river, and the 
order was brought in person by General W. T. Sherman, second 
in command to Anderson, at nine o'clock in the evening. By 
eleven o'clock they were all across the river, excepting a num- 
ber of cavalrymen, who were not yet mounted, and were left 
behind with orders to come on the next day, bringing with them 
the tents, camp-equipage, and supplies. The men were in high 



362 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

fipirits and the best order. The rumbling of the artillery- 
wheels and the regular tramp of the march of the men through 
the streets of Louisville, like that of an army of veterans, were 
the only sounds that broke the stillness of the night. There 
was nothing like tumult, and no sign of disorder. Such of the 
citizens as were wakeful remember the solemn sound ; but few 
were awakened from their slumbers. As soon as the cars could 
be made ready, the troops were taken off, and accompanying 
them a good force of the Home Guards of Louisville, who 
turned out with infinite spirit, in unexpectedly large numbers. 
General Sherman commanded the whole, General Anderson 
remaining in Louisville to obtain reinforcements and forward 
them as they might arrive. But this might not have foiled the 
enemy in his purpose, perhaps, had it not been for the spirited 
act of a loyal and intelligent young man of Bowling Green. 
The trains with Buckner's army arrived and were detained for 
a time at that place : he quietly set out, and, at a point a few 
miles down the road, displaced a rail, — in consequence of which 
the engine left the track and the rebel expedition was delayed. 
This gave time to General Anderson, which he improved well, 
as has been already stated. The enemy, nevertheless, got as 
far as Elizabethtown, forty miles from Louisville j but there he 
heard of the coming of the opposing force, and his heart failed 
him. He had employed agents to destroy a high bridge over 
the Eolling Fork of Salt Eiver, by which the progress of our 
forces was impeded, — but not long ; for Eousseau, on foot, led his 
men thi-ough the deep stream and onward. Buckner now 
thought proper to retire, and subsequently intrenched himself at 
Bowling Green, which place he held until the time of the fall of 
Fort Donelson. 

General Sherman established his camp on Muldraugh's Hill, 
about three miles north of Elizabethtown, leaving guards at 
each important point in his rear; and there he awaited the 
gathering of such forces as could be obtained from contiguous 
St&tes. In a few days they began to come : among the first 
were the 28th, 6th, and 39th Indiana Regiments, respectively 



ORGANIZATION AND EARLY OPERATIONS. 363 

under Colonels Scribner, T. T. Crittenden, and Harrison; the 
49th Ohio, under Colonel Gibson ; the 24:th Illinois, under Colonel 
Hecker; and two companies of the 15th United States Regulars, 
under Captain P. T. Swaine. These were in due time followed 
by other regiments; and this was the embryo of that army 
which, under the successive commands of Anderson, Sherman, 
Buell, and Eosecrans, has done such eminent service to the 
country, which by its gallant deeds has so glorified our country's 
history, and which on the battle-field has never met with a 
reverse. 

"When General Anderson, on the 28th of May, 1861, first took 
charge of this army, his command was called the " Department 
of Kentucky," and it comprehended so much of the State of 
Kentucky as lay within a hundred miles of the Ohio River. On 
the 11th of August it was extended over the whole State of Ken- 
tucky and the State of Tennessee, and was named the " Depart- 
ment of the Cumberland." In October, General W. T. Sherman 
took command, General Anderson's health failing. In Novem- 
ber, Sherman was relieved by General Buell, and the limits and 
title of the department were again changed to the " Department 
of the Ohio," and now comprehended the States of Ohio, 
Indiana, and Michigan, all of Kentucky lying east of the 
Cumberland River, and the State of Tennessee. The Depart- 
ment of the Missouri, commanded by General Halleek, lay 
west of the Cumberland ; and in the following March, General 
Halleck's command was extended eastward to a north-and-south 
line passing through Knoxville. This command was called 
the "Department of the Mississippi;" and in June this depart- 
ment was made to include the whole of Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. The particular command of General Buell was called 
the '^District of the Ohio," General Halleek having issued an 
order in April to the effect that the army of General Buell, as- 
well as those of Generals Grant and Pope, would retain their 
original titles and organization. Until ISTovembor 24, 1862, the 
title and limits of the District of the Ohio were retained. At 
that • date there was a new arrangement of departments and of 



364 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

commanders. Tennessee east of the Tennessee River and Northern 
Alabama and Georgia were made a department, under the name, 
revived, of " Department of the Cumberland," into which Ken- 
tucky was again transferred. The Department of General Eose- 
crans is now essentially the same, though heavily reinforced, 
as that of the District of the Ohio which General Buell com- 
manded. 

As has been stated, our army, as formed under Generals 
Anderson and Sherman, was but a small beginning. Under 
General Buell it grew to formidable dimensions and an excel- 
lent organization, holding defensively such parts of Kentucky as 
the enemy had not gained possession of previous to its creation, 
and striking from time to time telling blows. Such blows were 
the battles of Piketon, Prestonburg, Middle Creek, Pound Gap, 
Rowlett's Station, and Mill Spring. The armies of Buell and 
Grant, and Commodore Foote's fleet of gunboats, made their 
simultaneous and masterly advance on the whole front of the 
enemy, extending from Columbus to Bowling Green, — of which 
the main features were the reduction of Forts Henry and 
Donelson in the centre, the capture of Nashville on the 
enemy's right, and the subsequent compulsory evacuation of 
Columbus on his left, which was speedily followed by the reduc- 
tion of Island No. 10, in the Mississippi, by the gunboats and 
the co-operating army of General Pope. This advance was de- 
vised by General Buell. 

On the 23d of February the army of General Buell entered 
Nashville ; and there the general prepared for a continued ad- 
vance southward to occupy Middle Tennessee and Northern 
Alabama and to co-operate with the forces of General Grant 
against Corinth. The forces of the latter were carried by trans- 
ports up the Tennessee Eiver to Savannah and Pittsburg Land- 
•ing. Leaving a portion of his force under General O. M. 
Mitchel to advance directly south to Alabama, — which he subse- 
quently did most gallantly, — General Buell led his main army 
towards the Tennessee Eiver to join General Grant, and on 
the very hour of its arrival to plunge into the midst of the 
fight at Shiloh. How opportune his arrival it is needless now 



ORGANIZATION AND EARLY OPERATIONS. 365 

to tell. One day later, and who can tell how nearly fatal the 
disaster would have been ? and one day earlier might have 
secured a victory with the most important consequences. The 
enemy, foiled and defeated, retired precipitately to his strong- 
hold at Corinth. General Halleck now arrived and assumed 
command in the field, and the advance towards Corinth was con- 
tinued, the army of General Poj)e, having reduced Island No. 10, 
being added as a reinforcement. Late in May, Corinth was 
evacuated; and the Army of the Ohio returned eastward in 
June, to rejoin the portion detached under General Mitchel in 
Northern Alabama. The line of communication with Louis- 
ville — a distance of three hundred miles by railroad — had been 
kept open meanwhile by a portion of the Army of the Ohio, on 
which the army depended for its supplies, excepting so far as 
the country furnished them. The Cumberland and Tennessee 
Elvers were of little value for navigation in their then low stage. 
So much of these roads as lay in Tennessee and Alabama were in 
a hostile country; and even Kentucky was subject to guerrilla 
raids of formidable character. In addition, garrisons were to be 
maintained at Nashville and other prominent places. The part 
of the army not thus employed encamped at Battle Creek and 
at other points in the vicinity of Chattanooga, threatening the 
rebel army of General Bragg at that place. 

Such was the situation in July and part of August ; and a 
great battle was expected daily. A battle was not, however, 
the purpose of the enemy unless attacked; for he was organizing 
an irresistible force with which to overrun Kentucky, to hold 
Louisville and the large towns on the Ohio Eiver, and perhaps 
to capture Cincinnati. With this intent, the large army of 
Bragg began its march northward ; and, to thwart his purpose, 
Buell had to release his hold on the country he had conquered, 
and to follow. He called in his forces from their several posts, 
and fell back on Nashville in a line parallel with the march of 
Bragg. At this city, where defensive works had been con- 
structed within the month previous, he reorganized his forces 
with reference to the pending emergencies, left a small garrison 



866 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

there under General Negley, with orders to defend the plac€ at 
every hazard, and pursued his rapid march towards Louisville, 
desiring to reach it in advance of his powerful enemy, who had 
three days the start. He effected this, — but at the cost of the 
sacrifice of the brave garrison at Munfordsville, — and secured 
his depots and protected his trains from the longing desires of 
the enemy. At Louisville he received heavy reinforcements, 
principally of new troops collected there, and again turned his 
face southward. On the 8th of October, near Perryville, a 
part of his army encountered the enemy and defeated him in 
the battle of Chaplin Hills. The army of Bragg, so magnificent 
in its preparation for the conquest of Kentucky, was defeated in 
its prime purpose, and now began its retreat from the State. 
There was dissatisfaction at this result, however. The nation 
was almost overjoyed that the invasion had been repelled; and 
yet nothing less than Bragg's annihilation would suffice. Three 
weeks after this battle. General Buell was relieved. General 
Eosecrans assumed command on the 30th of October, and the 
army continued its march southward under its new commander. 
Thus plainly and briefly have we sketched the origin and 
early career of what is now the " Army of the Cumberland." 
The little force of Kentuckians that marched out under Rous- 
seau to repel the invasion of Buckner was the germ that grew 
into the army which saved Kentucky and occupied and held for 
a season Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama, which fought 
and won at Shiloh, and then returned and drove Bragg with a 
new rebel army from Kentucky. It has gathered strength by 
additions ; but every regiment which has ever belonged to it is 
with it still, excepting such as have been retained in Kentucky, 
a part of the district to which until last November the army 
belonged. The generals who now command our three army 
corps, — Thomas, McCook, and Crittenden, — and hundreds of our 
best officers, all grew up with it while it was advancing to its 
present dimensions. 



ADVANCE TO BOWLING GREEN AND NASHVILLE. 867 



ADVANCE TO BOWLING GEEEN AND NASHVILLE. 

By General Orders Ko. 168, from the "War Department, of date 
October 24, 1862, all of the State of Tennessee lying east of the 
Tennessee Eiver, and such portions of Northern Alabama and 
Georgia as should thereafter be possessed by the United States 
forces, were erected into the Department of the Cumberland. 
Forts Henry and Donelson were subsequently added to this 
territory, inasmuch as they completely commanded the water- 
communications of the new department and had no necessarily 
intimate connection with the contiguous departments of Generals 
Grant and Wright. The troops now nearly a year under the 
command of Major-General Buell, and collectively known as the 
"Army of the Ohio," were by the same authority designated 
" The Fourteenth Army Corps." The command of this depart- 
ment and corps was assigned to Major-General Eosecrans, then 
at the head of the Army of the Mississippi, and just emerged 
from the smoke and carnage of the bloody and victorious fields 
of luka and Corinth. 

In obedience to these orders, the new commander left Corinth 
on the 26th of October, and proceeded to his future field of labor. 
Passing two days with his family at Cincinnati, he reached 
Louisville on the 30th, and assumed command upon the same 
day. A short resume of the circumstances under which this 
change was made, and a brief glance at the condition of the 
army thus consigned to the leadership of General Eosecrans, may 
not prove uninteresting, and will materially aid the reader in 
arriving at just conclusions as to the amount and value of the 
labor since performed within the lines of the department. 

The successful escape of Eragg from Kentucky had greatly 
disappointed and somewhat disheartened the country. March- 
ing his ragged regiments within sight of the Ohio Eiver, he 
threatened both Cincinnati and Louisville, and yet, without 
sufficient force to capture either city, and, in all probability, 



368 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

abandoning all hope of doing so, he employed his time in feeding, 
clothing, and mounting his destitute men from the richly-stored 
granai*ies and well-stocked farms of the Green Eiver country. 
General Buell, with a celerity for which he has not been given 
credit, had rapidly countermarched, and, throwing his troops into 
Louisville, was once more, with a largely increased army, in 
front of the enemy. On the 1st of October the Army of the 
Ohio was ready to move, and again, with high hopes of meeting 
and crushing the invading foe, set its face southward. Before 
this largely superior force Bragg retreated, eventually escaping 
into Tennessee in full possession of all his plunder. True, 
he had fought and lost the battle of Chaplin Hills; but it 
was a contest of his own seeking, in which, at the price of 
nominal defeat, he was entirely successful in the accomplish- 
ment of those ends to secure which he made the attack. To 
us it was a barren victory, dearly bought with the lives of 
hundreds of our best and bravest men. As a splendid illus- 
tration of heroic valor it will forever live in history; but it 
does not rank among the important and decisive battles of 
the rebellion. 

It was now apparent that the ground gained by our arms in 
the South had been abandoned to the enemy; and, with the 
single exception of Nashville, garrisoned by the small divisions 
of Generals Negley and Palmer, but invested by a strong 
rebel force who were confident of its early capture, there was 
nothing to show as the result of nearly nine months' weary 
campaigning. Need it be wondered at that the spirit of complaint 
and discontent of the nation, which for months had with diffi- 
culty been repressed only by the hope that a crowning victory 
would speedily atone for the errors and follies of the past, 
again became rife, not only among the people at large, but 
even in the army? The Administration could not long with- 
stand the complaints and refuse to grant the wishes of those 
upon whom it was dependent for support in its struggle to 
maintain unimpaired the integrity of the Union. Accordingly, 
■while his columns, returning from their unsuccessful pursuit of 



ADVANCE TO BOWLING GREEN iWD NASHVILLE 369 

Bragg, were yet on the march towards Nashville, General Buell 
was relieved. 

The Army of the Ohio was nominally large and effective. No 
labor nor expense had been spared in its creation and perfection. 
To it, while Bragg was yet in Kentucky, every available regi- 
ment and battery in the West had been drawn, as also the 
splendid legions which during the preceding spring had swept 
the rebel hordes out of Kentucky, planted the Stars and Stripes 
upon the dome of the Capitol at Nashville, turned defeat into 
victory at Shiloh, and overrun the whole of Northern Missis- 
sippi and Alabama. Surely it must constitute an army whose num- 
bers and discipline would render it irresistible. So thought they 
who remembered only the men and material of which it had been; 
composed, but were unmindful of the fearful manner in which 
its ranks had been thinned by disease, battles, and the nameless 
vicissitudes of war. In every respect it was largely overesti- 
mated. Nearly seven thousand of its numbers, disheartened and 
dispirited, had deserted. More than twenty-six thousand w^ere 
absent by authority. The consolidated semi-monthly report for 
November 15, two weeks subsequent to the change of com- 
manders, shows that a total of thirty-two thousand nine hundred 
and sixty-six officers and men — at least one-third of the whole 
army — were absent from their commands! Of these nearly ten 
thousand were sick in the hospitals of the West ; the remainder 
were away on furlough or detached service, or had deserted. The 
army was composed in about equal proportions of veteran 
soldiers and raw recruits. The former were poorly clad and 
equipped, the latter inexperienced in drill or discipline, with 
officers often ignorant and sometimes incompetent. To add to 
the general incompleteness and inefficiency, there was a sad 
lack of cavalry J and even the small force of which the depart- 
ment could boast were so wanting in all the essentials of that 
branch of the service that they could be said to belong to it 
only because they wore its uniform and were mounted. To sum 
up all, briefly, the spirit of the army was broken, its confidence 

24 



370 ARaiY OF THE CUMBi.:.i-AND. 

destroyed, its discipline relaxed, its courage weakened, and its 
hopes shattered. 

Such were some of the peculiar circumstances under which 
General Eosecrans assumed command. With a larger and more 
perfect army the task before him would have been difficult : it 
was rendered doubly so by the events to which allusion has 
been made. True, success had hitherto attended him in his 
military undertakings ; but even this was a disadvantage, inas- 
much as there was danger of its raising the hopes and expecta- 
tions of the public to an unreasonable extent. He was pro- 
foundly conscious of all this ; but any evidence of despondency 
or hesitation on his part will be sought in vain. He entered 
upon his duties with characteristic promptness and energy, and, 
tarrying but twenty-four hours in Louisville, he pressed on to 
Bowling Green, and there established his head-quarters on the 
Ist of J^ovember. 

The divisions of the 14th Army Corps were concentrated at 
Bowling Green and Glasgow, with the exception of the two at 
Nashville, defending that city, as before stated. Bowling Green 
— seventy-two miles from Nashville — was the present terminus 
of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the temporary depot 
of supplies. The Cumberland River was at a veiy low stage, and 
the subsistence and equipments of the army had to be brought 
by rail from Louisville over a road running through an un- 
friendly country. Our troops at Nashville were short of sup- 
plies, and before an advance could be made in that direction it 
was necessary that the railroad should be rebuilt; and then only 
by the greatest exertions could the army be supplied with pro- 
visions in sufficient quantities, so limited were the available 
means of transportation. Infoi*mation touching the movements 
and designs of the enemy was difficult to obtain ; but it was 
satisfactorily established that Bragg was yet in East Tennessee, 
marching towards Chattanooga with the purpose of ultimately 
concentrating his army at Murfreesborough, thirty-two miles 
southeast of Nashville, and that Breckinridge was already posted 
at the latter place with a strong division. 



ADVANCE TO BOWLING GREEN AND NASHVILLE. 871 

To become acquainted with, and gain the confidence of, his 
army,— 'to inspire it with all its former pride and zeal, to fill its 
thinned ranks, to perfect its organization and discipline, and to 
thoroughly clothe and equip it, — -to extend his lines of railroad* 
communication, to procure and accumulate at convenient depots 
the requisite stores and supplies, to increase his knowledge of 
the country and the enemy, and, in short, to prepare for an 
active and vigorous campaign, — was the work to which General 
Eosecrans now addressed himself. In the words of one who is 
himself a gallant soldier, he " toiled terribly," night and daj-, 
scarcely taking for himself needed rest or allowing it to his* 
subordinates. 

Five millions of rations were sent forward from Louisville 
as fast as the limited capacity of the railroad would permit. 
Courier-lines were established between the diiferent camps and 
garrisons of the department. Information concerning the topo- 
graphy of the country was collected, and military maps were 
made. Pioneer corps were organized in each command for the 
purpose of building bridges and repairing roads. Negroes were 
made useful as teamsters and laborers, as opportunity offered. 
Reviews of the divisions in the vicinity were held, and men and 
equipments examined with earnest scrutiny. The new ti'oops 
were drilled incessantly. And, finally, authority was sought 
and obtained from the War Department to promptly muster out 
of or dismiss from the service " officers guilty of flagrant mis- 
demeanors and crimes, such as pillaging, drunkenness, and mis- 
behavior before the enemy or on guard-duty," as essential to the 
maintenance of discipline and good order. 

Having thus inaugurated measures looking to the improve- 
ment of his infantry in discipline and efficiency, the general 
next vigorously applied himself to the reorganization and per- 
fection of his cavalry. It was soon apparent that its feeble and 
unserviceable condition was owing in part to the want of 
capable officers to instruct and to lead them. Accordingly, he 
asked for the appointment of Brigadier-General David S. Stan- 
ley, with whom he had served in Mississippi, as his chief of 



372 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

cavalry; and that oflficer, in compliance with this requoat, was 
relieved from the command of a division of the Army of the 
Mississippi and transferred to the 14th Army Corps. A requisi- 
tion was also made for five thousand revolving rifles : three 
thousand — all that the arsenals could supply — were obtained. 
Five thousand mules were ordered for pack-trains ; but months 
elapsed before they were procured. An attempt was also made to 
perfect this arm of the service by combi;iing with it light field- 
batteries for rapid movements; but the Government had not 
troops to man them, and it eventuall}'' became necessary to 
mount infantry and instruct them in this service. 

General McCook's division was ordered to move, on the 4th, to 
Kashville, and, if possible, to reach that city by ten o'clock on 
the morning of the 7th. Upon receipt of information that the 
enemy were preparing to make an attack in force on the place 
they had so long invested, his columns were .in motion by day- 
light on the 4th, and on the afternoon of the 6th had reached 
Edgefield Junction, twelve miles distant, when the thunder of 
heavy guns in the direction of Nashville hastened still more his 
rapid progress, and, pressing on, General Sill's division reached 
the Cumberland opposite the city at eight o'clock on the next 
morning, — two hours in advance of the designated time. The 
threatened attack had been made the day before, but had failed, 
as we have elsewhere fully narrated. This arrival relieved the 
city of all apprehension of further trouble, and established 
direct and regular communication with the head-quarters of 
the army. « 

By the 6th the railroad had been reopened to Mitchellsville, 
and supplies of all kinds were hurried forward with the utmost 
rapidity. Heavy supply-trains were put upon the road, and 
thus General McCook provisioned his own men, as well as the 
garrison of Nashville. The army was divided into the grand 
division, known as the Eight, the Centre, and the Left, com- 
manded respectively by Major-Generals McCook, Thomas, and 
Crittenden. The various columns were at once ordered for- 
ward ; and in ten days from the time General Eosecrans assumed 



OCCUPANCY OF NASHVILLE. 373 

coiumand, the whole army, with new life and energy instilled 
into every department of it, was moving with irresistible power 
towards the capital of Tennessee, in search of an enemy who 
had already twice escaped from its grasp. A vast amount of 
preparatory labor had been performed, plans for the ensuing 
campaign matured, communications established and suitably 
guarded, the army reorganized, and now its commander was 
ready to advance. 

Accordingly, on the morning of the 10th of November, the 
head-quarters at Bowling Green were broken up, and the 
general and his staff proceeded by rail to Mitchellsville, whence, 
mounting their horses and escorted by a squadron of the 4th 
United States Cavalry, they rode to Nashville, reaching the city 
about nine o'clock the same evening. Head-quarters were im- 
mediately established in the Cunningham House, a large and 
elegant residence, whose owner was a quartermaster in the rebel 
army. 



OCCUPANCY OP NASHVILLE. 

There was work to be done. It was a rebel city, occupied as 
conquered territory, and swarming with traitors, smugglers, and 
spies. Of its male inhabitants a large number were in the rebel 
army, and its women, arrogant and defiant, were alike outspoken 
in their treason and indefatigable in their efforts to aid that 
cause for which their brothers, sons, and husbands were fighting. 
The city, in fact, was one vast " Southern Aid Society," whose 
sole aim was to plot secret treason and furnish information to 
the rebel leaders. To purify this tainted atmosphere, to esta- 
blish order by the application of military law, and to impress 
this people with a sense of the strength and power of the 
Government, was the task to which General Rosecrans assidu- 
ously devoted himself while waiting for the accumulation of 
sufficient food, clothing, ammunition, and camp-equipage to 
make a further advance. 



374 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

The police and secret-service department was organized and 
put into successful operation. The secret haunts of treason 
were penetrated, and its agents dragged forth to exposure and 
punishment. Smugglers and spies were pursued with a vigor 
so relentless that detection became the rule and escape the ex- 
ception. Goods were seized and their owners sent to i^rison or 
expelled from the department, thus virtually putting an end to 
that contraband trade which had been of incalculable benefit to 
the rebels. All sutlers were ordered to their regiments, and it 
was announced that the Government would aflPord protection 
and trading privileges to all who would subscribe to an oath 
prepared for the occasion, and give bond with proper security for 
its faithful observance. Questions having arisen concerning 
the nature and binding force of this oath, they were definitively 
settled by an explanatory circular from head-quarters j and many 
embraced the opportunity thus afi'orded of procuring protection 
for themselves and property. 

With all this care for the civil affairs of the department, the 
army was not neglected. No effort was spared to perfect it in 
drill, discipline, and equipment. An efficient signal corps was 
established. A new system of inspections was devised and 
adopted. A more careful attention to the proper performance 
of guard-duty was strictly enjoined. Sutlers were checked in 
their illegal and injurious practices. The authority obtained 
from the War Department to dismiss from the service incom- 
petent and drunken oflScers was freely exercised. A cowardly 
trick of voluntarily surrendering to the enemy to be paroled, 
and thus escape the service, was summarily ended by the pub- 
lication and subsequent enforcement of an order directing that 
all thus practically guilty of desertion should have their heads 
encased in white cotton night-caps, and, thus publicly branded 
as cowards, be marched through the streets and camps and 
sent North. The effect of this discipline was soon apparent; 
and in the six weeks spent at Nashville a long stride towards 
perfection was made by the army, thanks to the energy of its 
commander and the fidelity of its officers. 



OCCUPANCY OF NASHVILLE. 376 

Meanwhile the enemy was sharply watched. His movements 
were for a time veiled by the sti'ong cavalry force which he 
had thrown in front and which prevented our spies and scouts 
from obtaining ready entrance within his lines. The bridge 
across the Tennessee was known to be burned, and Bragg was 
said to be rebuilding it. The crowds of refugees thronging to 
our lines to escape the conscription, which the rebels were 
rigidly enforcing, reported that the road from the Tennessee 
to Murfreesborough was lined with camps. Still, it could not 
be definitely ascertained where the rebel general proposed to 
make a stand. Many believed that he would not attempt resist- 
ance to our advance on the north side of the Tennessee Eiver, 
but would fall back from Murfreesborough to Chattanooga. 
But his movements and intentions were ere long developed by 
refugees, and the spies in the employ of Colonel Truesdail, Chief 
of the Army Police. In the latter part of November, Bragg was 
reported as having taken position in the rear of Stewart's Creek, 
nineteen miles from Nashville, with a force of sixty thousand 
effective men. His left rested on the Franklin pike, and his 
right on the Lebanon pike. His front was covered Avith strong 
cavalry vedettes, extending from the Lebanon pike to a point on 
the left of Nolensville, intersecting the Murfreesborough pike 
eleven miles from Nashville, and distant from, our outposts 
scarcely two miles. Morgan, with a heavy force of cavalry 
and mounted infantry, covered his right, and Forrest his left, 
while Wheeler was posted at Lavergne and Wharton at Nolens- 
ville. His right wing was commanded by Kirby Smith, his 
left by Hardee, and the centre by Polk. 

With his cavalry, in which he was immensely superior, the 
enemy constantly annoyed our outposts and forage-trains. The 
provision-trains between Nashville and Mitchellsville were con- 
stantly watched, and sometimes pounced upon, involving the 
loss, during the three weeks preceding the completion of the 
railroad, of a few men and wagons, — but were compensated 
for by equal captures on our side, however. Our cavalry was 
growing daily more efficient, and brisk skirmishes were of con- 



376 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Btant occurrence. Colonel John Kennett, acting chief of cavalry, 
captured lai-ge quantities of rebel stores, and eventually forced 
Morgan across the Cumberland. On the 27th of November he 
drove a large body of the enemy in confusion for some fifteen 
miles on the Franklin pike. The same day General Kirk, with 
a portion of his brigade, ran Wheeler out of Lavergne and 
destroyed a number of store-houses used by the enemy. Our 
loss was eleven wounded; that of the rebels was unknown, it 
being only ascertained that Forrest was among their wounded. 
The same evening Colonel Eoberts, of the 42d Illinois, surprised 
a captain and squad of Morgan's men on the Charlotte pike, 
capturing the entire party, with their arms, equipments, and 
horses. About this time the enemy suddenly crossed the Cum- 
berland near Ilartsville, and captured a forage-train and the 
men accompanying, but were pursued by Major Hill, with a 
squadron of the 2d Indiana Cavalry, who succeeded, after a 
pursuit of eighteen miles, in recapturing the train, releasing 
the prisoners, and killing about twenty of the rebels. 

On the 26th of ISTovember the railroad was completed from 
Mitchellsville to Nashville, and was immediately employed in 
hastening forward supplies. Up to this time it had been barely 
possible to subsist the army by running wagon-trains to that 
point, much less to attempt to accumulate supplies for the 
future. With railroad-communication re-established to Louis- 
ville, a vast improvement in this regard was expected. The 
supply soon began, but very slowly, to exceed the daily con- 
sumption, and in time, it was hoped, a sufficiency would be 
collected. 

Thus far, in all the skirmishing, the rebels had gained no ad- 
vantage. In fact, thej' had of late been badly worsted in their 
attacks upon our trains, &c. These successes — small, it is true, 
for the enemy avoided any contest of greater magnitude — in- 
spired the army with hope and confidence. But now a reverse 
was in store that more than balanced all these minor advantages, 
and, in a measure, covered our arms with misfortune, if rot 



THE BATTLE OF HARTSVILLE, 377 

disgrace, which stung our troops to the quick and filled them 
with a restless longing for action and revenge. This was 



THE BATTLE OE HAETSVILLE. 

The main body of the centre division of our army did not 
advance to Nashville, but remained in the vicinity of Gallatin, 
to protect our line of communication to Louisville. General 
Dumont's division was stationed at Castilian Springs, in front 
of Gallatin, and he had thrown forward a brigade to Hartsville, 
for the purpose of guarding a ford and watching the road to 
Lebanon. This movement had been directed by General Thomas, 
and the brigade — the 39th — had taken position on elevated 
ground, where it was supposed they would be able to maintain 
themselves against a largely superior force. This post was 
first commanded by Colonel J. R. Scott, of the 19th Illinois, but 
on the 2d of December he was succeeded by Colonel A. B. Moore, 
of the 104th Illinois. According to Colonel Moore's oflScial 
report, the brigade consisted of the 104th Illinois, the 106th and 
108th Ohio, the 2d Indiana Cavalry, one company of the 11th 
Kentucky Cavalry, and a section of Knicklin's Indiana Battery, 
— in all, 1805 men. The troops were all new and untried, with 
the exception of the cavalry and artillery. Other authorities 
have placed the number at 1984; but the discrepancy is of no 
importance. The 2d and 40th Brigades were at Castilian 
Springs, about nine miles distant. 

On Saturday, December 6, General John H. Morgan, of the 
Confederate Army, left Prairie Mills, eight railes south of Leba- 
non, Tennessee, and twenty -five from Hartsville, for the purpose 
of attacking the latter place. His force is stated by Colonel 
Moore at over five thousand, comprising six regiments of 
cavalry and two of mounted infantiy (the 2d and 9th Ken- 
tucky), and fourteen pieces of artillery, besides a consider- 
able number of rebel citizens. Colonel Moore had not more 
than twelve hundred effective men, the balance being sick or 
on guard-duty with a provision-train. On Saturday night 



878 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Morgan encamped within five miles of Hartsville, and at early 
dawn the next morning moved to the attack. His advance 
guard were clothed in Federal uniform, thereby completely 
deceiving Colonel Moore's vedettes, and capturing all of them 
without firing a gun. The enemy moved between Hartsville 
and Castilian Springs, and at sunrise were descried by one of 
the camp-guards, while approaching in the rear. A company 
of skirmishers threw itself forward and, by a sharp fire, checked 
the enemy, who approached cautiously, fearing stratagem. 
Time was thus given our troops to form in line of battle on the 
crest of a hill to the right of the camp. The enemy dis- 
mounted and, forming in compact line, moved forward, not- 
withstanding a heavy but scattering fire from Moore's line, 
and soon gained a protected position behind a fence at the foot 
of the hill on which our men were posted. The guns of 
Knicklin's battery were well handled, but the fire of the enemy 
was so destructive that the Ohio regiments were panic-stricken 
and gave way. The 104th Illinois stood its ground manfully for 
a time, but, being unsupported, was forced to yield to superior 
numbers. Strong cavalry detachments were harassing their 
flanks, and, after an hour and three-quarters' desultory and 
irregular fighting, the whole force was surrendered. The rebel 
cavalry had already dashed into the camps and made prisoners 
of the sick, straggling, and detached soldiers there found. Oui 
loss in the affair was fifty-five killed and one hundred Avounded. 
The enemy's loss was not far from the same. About thirteen 
hundred prisoners, two field-pieces, and a quantity of arms, 
ammunition, camp-equipage, and transportation, thus fell into 
the hands of the rebels. The defence was deemed unskilful, 
and the surrender premature. The fact that our troops had but 
just entered the service should be remembered in palliation, 
and their bravery has since been amply attested upon Vloody 
battle-fields. 



WHEELER DEFEATED BY MATTHEWS's BRIGADE. 379 



WHEELEK DEPElATED BY MATTHEWS'S BEIGADE. 

On the 9th of December another brigade was attacked by a 
strong force of rebel cavalry, mounted infantry, and artillery, 
all under the command of Brigadier-General Wheeler; but the 
result was vastly different. On that day Colonel Stanley' 
Matthews, of the 51st Ohio, commanding the brigade, moved 
out upon the JVIurfreesborough pike with a large foraging-train 
guarded by the 51st Ohio, the 35th Indiana, the 8th and 21st 
Kentucky, and a section of Swallow's 7th Indiana Battery. 
Leaving the pike to his right, he crossed Mill Creek at Dobbins's 
Ferry, detailing a sergeant and ten men of the 21st Kentucky to 
guard the crossing. The train was filled, and just on the point 
of returning, when a sharp musketry-fire was heard in the 
direction of the crossing. Colonel Matthews immediately has- 
tened on with the 51st Ohio and 35th Indiana, and, finding the 
enemy advancing through the woods in heavy force, at once 
opened fire, and, after a severe encounter, drove them a con- 
siderable distance, thus saving his picket-guard. Meanwhile 
the train and the remainder of the force had come up, and 
would have been a rich prize; but Colonel Matthews had no idea 
of allowing its capture by the rebel force, though apparently 
doubly superior to his own. Accordingly, with the Kentuckians 
protecting the rear and the Ohio and Indiana regiments in 
advance, he began a brisk march homeward. A short distance 
had been traversed, when the enemy was again discovered on 
the rear, moving forward rapidly and in strong force. No re- 
sistance was offered until they were within close range, when 
they were met by a fire fx*om the Kentuckians so heavy and 
well directed that they recoiled. Soon reforming, they ad- 
vanced and attacked again, but more cautiously than before, 
upon Matthews's flanks, and the fight became general. Their 
attempts to press his flanks, and a desperate effort to break his 
lines, were unsuccessful. The enemy was again driven back, 



380 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

and in a few moments fled from the field. Our loss in the 
engagement was five killed, thirty-five wounded, and four 
missing. The rebels subsequently confessed to a loss, on their 
part, of one hundred. The brigade marched safely to the 
city, and was warmly congratulated for the gallantry it had 
displayed. 

General Stanley arrived and reported for duty about the 
middle of November. He at once organized the cavalry into 
two divisions, taking command of the first himself, and placing 
the second in charge of Colonel John Kennett. The revolving 
rifles had now arrived and been distributed, and the men were 
anxious to try them. To gratify them. General Stanley, with a 
considerable force, on the 11th of December, moved out on the 
Franklin pike, having in view a reconnoissance and the 



OAPTUEE OF lEANKLIN. 

Soon after passing our outposts, skirmishing began with the 
enemy, and was continued all day, the latter's cavalry being 
chased and scattered in every direction. By night, Stanley and 
his men, tired and jaded, were beyond Triune, seven miles west 
of Murfreesborough, having destroyed two camps, dispersed 
numerous bands of the enemy, and captured a considerable 
number of rebel troopers and horses, w^ith no loss to themselves. 
In front of them, at Nolensville, there was a large rebel force. 
Bragg, with his main army, was at Murfreesborovigh, and 
Buckner was in their rear, with his division. The attempt was 
hazardous, but General Stanley proceeded with his original 
design of making a dash at Franklin, and taking the garrison 
by surprise at night, if possible. The latter part of the plan 
was accidentally defeated. The enemy having been apprized ' 
of his presence, Stanley waited until daylight, when he ad- 
vanced cautiouslj'- upon the town and drove in the rebel pickets. 
The 7th Pennsylvania formed line on /the north bank of the 
Harpeth, a little to the right of where Fort Gilbert now stands, 
and opened fire on the enemy. Company I, of the 4th Michi- 




1»LAX 

h&niiU JfulijJ) 

TOMB R^IWER, 

near Murfreesboro. Teiin. 

rim nrieniliiijll "' tiZ tuJun i M- 

'^(iEN'^W.S.ROSECRANS, 

axlon Bra§^. conirnaii(l« thoEuenvy. 



ati,l Ueat HMen.U.S.V. 



F S Duval&Son.Ufli Phil? 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER, 381 

gan Cavalry, dismounting, took position near the bridge and 
opened fire on the mill; the remainder of the 4th Michigan 
dismounted under cover of the rising ground on which the Ttl 
Pennsylvania were formed, advanced at the double-quick, passed 
the position of the 7th Pennsylvania, waded across the river, 
and drove the rebels from the town. Colonel Minty was the 
first man across the river, and, as he scrambled up the south 
bank, he took prisoner a rebel oflScer. The 4th Michigan had 
passed through the town and were following the eneni}" out on 
the Columbia and Carter's Creek pikes, on foot, before any of 
the mounted men had crossed the river. The enemy left one 
captain and four privates dead in the town, and ten severely 
wounded. Fifteen or twenty prisoners were also captured. 
General Stanley occupied the town an hour or two, destroyed 
a flouring-mill, captured a number of rebel horses, &c., and 
returned to his camp. 



BATTLE OF STONE EIVEE. 

The loyal people of the North were anxiously awaiting tidings 
of great events in the Department of the Cumberland. Far 
removed from the scene of action, they could not be expected to 
appreciate the vast amount of labor performed and the really 
wonderful progress made during the six weeks' stay at Nash- 
ville. To their minds, activity was indicated only by the shock 
of great battles, the thunder of artillery, the crash of musketry, 
and the groans of the dying. Nearly two months had elapsed 
since General Eosecrans assumed command, and no great re- 
sults had as yet been realized by his grand army. From every 
side a pressure now began to bear upon the general command- 
ing, urging a forward movement, especially after the re-esta- 
blishment of railroad-communication with Louisville. 

All such outside and — as our national experience has proven 
— improper influences, however, were firmly resisted by General 
Eosecrans. He declared that he would not move until the 



882 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

proper time,— that war was a business which not every one could 
understand, — and that he would not be driven by public clamor 
into a movement which his judgment could not approve. For 
many days after this impatience began to be manifested, the 
army was in no condition to move. It could not have moved 
more than three days without halting for supplies. On the 5th 
of December, nine days after the completion of the railroad, but 
five days' provisions had been accumulated ; and with so scanty 
a store it would have been unwise and criminal to move the 
army from its base of supplies into the heart of the enemy's 
country. In his ofiicial report of the battle of Stone Eiver, 
General Eosecrans alludes to the difficulties under which he 
labored, and explains satisfactorily the reasoning by which he 
was guided. 

By Christmas thirty days* provisions had been collected and 
stored in Nashville ; and now the general deemed it prudent to 
move. It had been satisfactorily ascertained, by means of spies 
and refugees, that the enemy had prepared his winter-quarters at 
Murfreesborough, and had sent one portion of his large cavalry 
force into West Tennessee to annoy General Grant, and another 
into Kentucky to destroy our railroad-communication. Polk's 
and Kii'by Smith's forces were at Murfreesborough, and Hardee's 
corps was on the Shelbyville and ISTolensville pike, between Triune 
and Eagleville. The enemy had been purposely deceived as to 
General Eosecrans's intentions, and supposed that he was going 
into winter quarters at Nashville, his force having been mainly 
collected in front of that city and extending over a strip of 
territory about ten miles in width. Under all these circum- 
stances, it was adjudged that the time for an advance had 
arrived, and on the 24th of December orders were issued to the 
different columns to move at daybreak on the next day, Christ- 
mas. This announcement was received by the army with great 
satisfaction. For good reason, however, the orders were coun- 
termanded late that evening, after every preparation had been 
made for the morrow's advance. 

Oi Chri'^tmas night a consultation was held at head-quarters, 



BATTLE OP STONE RIVER. S83 

at which the general announced that the army would move the 
next morning, and that the order and direction of the movement 
would be as follows : — 

McCook, with three divisions, to advance by the Nolensville 
pike to Triune. 

Thomas, with two divisions (Negley's and Eousseau's), to 
advance on his right, by the Franklin and "Wilson pikes, threat- 
ening Hardee's right, and then to fall in by the cross-roads to 
Nolensville. 

Crittenden, with "Wood's, Palmer's, and Yan Cleve's divisions, 
to advance by the Murfreesborough pike to Lavergne. 

With Thomas's two divisions at ^olensville, McCook was 
to attack Hardee at Triune ; and if the enemy reinforced Hardee, 
Thomas was to support McCook. 

If McCook beat Hardee, or Hardee retreated, and the enemy 
met us at Stewart's Creek, five miles south of Lavergne, Crit- 
tenden was to attack him ; Thomas was to come in on his left 
flank, and McCook, after detaching a division to pursue or 
observe Hardee, if retreating south, was to move with the 
remainder of his force on their rear. 

General Stanley was to cover the movements with his cavalry. 
Dividing his force into three columns, he ordered Colonel Minty, 
with the first brigade, to move upon the Murfreesborough pike 
in advance of the left wing. The second brigade, in charge of 
Colonel Zahn, of the 3d Ohio Cavalry, was directed to move on 
the Franklin road parallel to the right wing, protecting its right 
flank. The reserve, consisting of new regiments, Genei-al Stanley 
himself would command, and precede General McCook's com- 
mand on the Nolensville pike. Colonel John Kennett was 
assigned to the command of the cavalry on the left ; and the 4th 
United States Cavalry, Captain Otis commanding, was reserved 
for courier and escort duty. 

The morning of the 26th was dark, dreary, and rainy, but the 
camps were none the less scenes of active and busy prepara- 
tion, and in due season the columns were in motion. McCook 
advanced on Nolensville, Johnson's and Sheridan's divisions 



o84 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

moving upon the direct road, and Davis's division marching by 
way of the Edmonson pike to Prim's blacksmith-shop, whence it 
struck for Nolensville by a country cross-road. The advance 
of Davis's and Sheridan's commands encountered the enemy's 
columns about two miles beyond our picket-line; and fi'om that 
point to Nolensville there was constant skirmishing. The 
enemy, occupying the town in considerable force, were driven 
out, and retired to a rocky range of hills about two miles beyond, 
through a defile in which (known as Knob Gap) the Nolensville 
and Triune pike passes. Here they made a stand, lining the 
slopes with skirmishers and placing a six-gun battery on a com- 
manding position. A sharp fire was opened upon them by our 
batteries, and they were then gallantly attacked in front by 
Carlin's brigade and driven from their position with the loss of 
one gun and a number of prisoners. After taking possession 
of the defile and the hills, the right was encamped for the night, 
Johnson's division having arrived at Nolensville, without inci- 
dent worthy of mention, at four o'clock. The loss of the right 
during the day was about seventy-five in killed and wounded. 

The centime, consisting of Eousseau's and Negley's divisions 
and Walker's brigade of Fry's division, and numbering thirteen 
thousand three hundred and ninety-five effective men, was to 
encamp that night at Owen's Store, on the Wilson pike. Rous- 
seau did so; but Negley, hearing heavy firing in the direction of 
Nolensville, left his train with a guard to follow him, and pushed 
on with his troops to the assistance of Davis, who was hotly en- 
gaged at Knob Gap. Walker's brigade camped at Brentwood, 
no enemy having been met during the day. 

General Crittenden, in command of the left wing, thirteen thou- 
sand two hundred and eighty-eight effective men, moved along 
the Murfreesborough pike. Palmer's division in advance, fol- 
lowed by Wood's. Several miles north of Lavergne, a small 
town about equidistant from Nashville and Murfreesborough, 
portions of the enemy were encountered by our cavalry in the 
advance, and a running fight at once began. The country be- 
tween Murfreesborough and Nashville was peculiarly favorable 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 385 

to the enemy in resisting and retarding our advance, — a small 
force being able to check the progress of a larger one. Large 
cultivated tracts occur at intervals on either side of the pike ; 
but between these tracts are dense woods, often interspersed 
•with almost impenetrable cedar thickets. The resistance the 
enemy M'as thus enabled to offer prevented our troops from 
gaining the commanding heights south of Lavergne on the first 
day, and so delayed their arrival at Lavergne that the neces- 
sary and customary reconnoissance could not be made. To 
guard against surprise, however, a regiment from each brigade 
was thrown Avell forward as a grand guard, and the front and 
flanks covered with a continuous line of skirmishers. 

General Eoseerans, with his staff and escort, left Kashville at 
mid-day, in the midst of a drenching rain, and rode rapidly 
towards General McCook's head-quarters; but it was long after 
dark when the camp of the right wing was reached. McCook 
reported Hardee in his front, at Triune, seven miles distant, and 
said that he expected a stout resistance the next day. He was 
directed to move at daylight and push the enemy hard; and the 
general-in-chief took his leave, reaching his own camp at about 
one o'clock in the morning. 

General McCook was ready to advance by dawn the next 
morning; but it had rained all the preceding day and night, and 
a dense fog, which prevented any thing being seen at a distance 
of one hundred and fifty yards, greatly retarded operations. 
The columns had moved about two miles when they encountered 
the enemy's cavalry, infantry, and artillery. The fog at this 
time was so thick that friend coiild not be distinguished from 
foe,-our cavalry being fired upon by our infantry skii-mishers on 
the flanks. The enemy being conversant with the ground and 
our troops strangers to it, and having learned that Hardee's 
corps had been in line of battle all night, General McCook 
deemed it inadvisable to advance until the fog lifted. 

He accordingly halted the column until one o'clock, when, the 
fog having disappeared, an advance was immediately ordered, 
and the enemy's cavalry were driven forward. On nearing 

25 



886 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND, 

Triune, it was found that the main portion of the forces had 
retired, leaving a battery of six pieces, supported by cavalry, to 
contest the crossing of Wilson's Creek, a stream with steep and 
bluff banks, which could be crossed only with great difficulty, 
the enemy having destroyed the bridge. General Johnson, 
against a sharp resistance, finally gained a position overlooking 
Triune, and opened fire upon the rebels, who were formed in 
line, with their centre in the village. A few shots were suffi- 
cient to confuse them, and their battery, with the cavalry, fled 
down the Eagleville road. It being now nearly dark, and a 
severe and driving rain-storm having set in, they were pursued 
no farther. Johnson's division then crossed, and camped beyond 
Wilson's Creek, repairing the destroyed bridge. Sheridan's 
division also camped near the village, and Davis bivouacked at 
the junction of the Balle Jack road with the Nolensville pike. 

On the centre. General Thomas moved Rousseau to Nolens- 
ville ; but the heavy rains had so damaged the cross-roads that 
he did not reach that place until night. Negley remained at 
INolensville until ten o'clock, when, having brought his train 
across from Wilson's pike, he moved to the east, over an exceed- 
ingly rough by-road, to the right of Crittenden, at Stewarts- 
borough, on the Murfreesborough pike. Walker retraced his 
steps from Brentwood, and crossed over to the Nolensville pike. 

The troops of the left were roused an hour and a half before 
dawn, and, getting their breakfast as speedily as possible, were 
formed in line and under arms before it was light. The enemy 
still occupied the opposite heights, and early in the morning 
began dropping an occasional shell into our lines, — thus proving 
the wisdom of the precautions taken. At eleven o'clock the 
left began its march to obtain possession of Lavergne, that being 
the first object. The enemy were strongly posted in the houses, 
and on the wooded heights in the rear, where they were enabled 
to oppose our advance by a direct and cross fire of musketry. 
Hascall's brigade advanced across an open field, and, quickly 
driving the rebels from their position, continued their forward 
movement, supported by Estep's 8th Indiana Battery. The 



BATTLE OP STONE RIVER. 387 

enemy availed themselves of every opportunity to dispute their 
progress, but could not materially retard it. They continued to 
press forward through the densely-wooded country, in a drench- 
ing rain-storm, till the advance reached Stewart's Creek, dis- 
tant some five miles from Lavergne, — a narrow, deep stream, 
flowing between high and precipitous banks, and spanned by a 
wooden bridge, of which it was a matter of cardinal impoi'tance 
to secure possession. 

The enemy had lighted a fire upon it, but had been pressed 
so warmly that the flames had not yet communicated to the 
bridge. The skirmishers and the 3d Kentucky Volunteers- 
Colonel McKee — dashed bravely forward, under a steady fire 
from the opposing forces, threw the combustible materials 
into the stream, and saved the bridge. While this gallant feat 
was being performed, the left flank of the leading brigade was 
attacked by cavalry. The menaced regiments immediately 
changed front to left, repulsed the attack, and a company of the 
100th Illinois succeeded in cutting off and capturing twenty-five 
prisoners with their arms, and twelve horses with their accou- 
trements. The result of the day's operations was twenty 
wounded in Hascall's brigade, and some tw'cnty-five prisoners 
taken from the enemy. The enemy fell back in great disorder 
from Stewart's Creek, leaving tents standing on the southern 
bank of the creek, and the ground strewn with arms. 

This was Saturday night. On Sunday there was no move- 
ment, the troops resting, except Eousseau's division, which was 
ordered to move on to Stewartsborough, and "Willich's brigade, 
which had pursued Hardee as far as Eiggs's Cross-Eoads, and, 
havinor determined the fact that Hardee had gone to Murfrees- 
borougb, returned to Triune. During the day General Eose- 
crans visited the front, and observed the enemy from the north 
bank of Stewart's Creek. A battery supported by a consider- 
able force of mounted infantry was in plain sight, upon an 
elevated position in the road about a mile south of that stream, 
and the woods nearer its bank were swarming with rebels. 
The ground on the opposite side was admirably calculated for 



38S ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

defence; and it was the general conclusion that the enemy 
would, in force, resist our crossing. Proper dispositions were 
made in view of the anticipated engagement, and, after a brief 
visit to General Crittenden's quarters, the general returned to 
his head-quarters, now at Lavergne. 

Leaving the second brigade of Johnson's division at Triune, 
General McCook marched on the 29th by the Balle Jack road 
towards Murfreesborough, but, the road being very bad, the com- 
mand did not reach Wilkerson's Ci'oss-Eoads (five miles from 
Murfreesborough) until late in the evening. His command was 
encamped in line of battle, Sheridan's on the left of Wilker- 
son's pike, Davis's division on the right of the same road. Wood- 
ruff's brigade guarding the bridge over Overall's Creek, and 
the two brigades of Johnson's division watching the right. 
Believing that the enemy intended giving battle at or near 
jVIurfreesborough, he ordered the brigade left at Triune to join 
the main body, which it did the next day. 

Negley's division crossed Stewart's Creek, two miles south- 
west and above the turnpike-bridge, and marched in support of 
the head and right flank of Crittenden's corps, which moved by 
the Murfreesborough pike, to a point within two miles of Mur- 
freesborough. The enemy fell back before our advance, con- 
testing the ground obstinately with their cavalry rear-guard. 
Eousseau remained in camp at Stewartsborough, detaching 
Starkweather's brigade, with a section of artillery, to the 
Jefferson pike crossing of Stone Eiver, to observe the move- 
ments of the enemy in that direction. Walker reached Stew- 
artsborough from the Nolensville pike about dark. 

Crittenden's corps advanced. Palmer leading, on the Murfrees- 
borough pike, followed by Negley, of Thomas's corps, to within 
three miles of Mui'freesborough, having had several brisk skir- 
mishes, driving the enemy rapidly and forcing him back to his 
intrenehments, saving two bridges on the route. About three p.m. 
a signal-message from General Palmer said that he was in sight 
of Murfreesborough and the enemy were said to be evacuating. 
An order was sent to General Crittenden to send a d" vision to 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 389 

occupy Murfi eesborough. Harker's brigade was directed by 
the latter to cross the river at a ford on his left, where he sur- 
prised a regiment of Breckinridge's division and drove it back 
on its main lines, not more than five hundred yards distant, in 
considerable confusion ; thus he held this position until General 
Crittenden was advised that Breckinridge was in force on his 
front, when, it being dark, he ordered the brigade to recross the 
river, — a hazardous movement, but skilfully executed, with the 
loss of two killed and three wounded, — and reported the circum- 
stances to the commanding general on his arrival, by whom 
his action was approved, the order to occupy Murfreesborough 
having been based on the information that the enemy were 
retreating from Murfreesborough. Crittenden's corps, with 
Xegley's division, bivouacked in order of battle, about seven 
hundred yards from the enemy's intrenchments, our left ex- 
tending down the river some five hundred yards. The Pioneer 
Brigade, bivouacking still lower down, prepared three fords, 
and covered one of them, Wood's division covering the other 
two. 

At half-past three o'clock on the morning of the 30th, 
General McCook received orders to rest the left of his line 
on the right of ISTegley's division, and to throw his right for- 
ward until it became parallel, or nearly so, with Stone Eiver, 
the extreme right to rest on or near the Franklin pike. At 
half-past nine the right wing began its march down the Wil- 
kerson pike towards Murfreesborough. Soon after crossing 
Overall's Creek, the enemy's infantry pickets were encountered, 
and heavy skirmishing ensued. The line then moved forward 
slowly, as the enemy, under cover of heavy woods and cedar 
thickets, stubbornly contested every inch of ground. About 
Eoon, Sheridan's division joined Negley's right, the other divi- 
sions coming up on Sheridan's right, thus forming a continuous 
line, the left resting on Stone Eiver, the right stretching in a 
westerly direction and resting on high wooded ground a short 
distance to the south of Wilkorson's Cross-Eoads, and nearly 



390 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

parallel with the enemy's intrenchments thrown up on the 
sloping land hordering the northwest bank of Stone River. 

Yan Cleve's division being in the reserve, Eousseau's division, 
with the exception of Starkweather's brigade, was ordered up 
from Stewartsborough, reaching the position occupied by the 
army about four o'clock in the afternoon, and bivouacked on 
the ]\Iurfreesborough pike in the rear of the centre. During 
the morning, Ncgley's division was obliqued to the right, and 
took up a position on the right of Palmer's division of Critten- 
den's corps, and was then advanced through a dense cedar 
thicket, several hundred yards in width, to Wilkerson's Cross- 
Koads, driving the enemy's skirmishers steadily and with con- 
siderable loss. 

The left was early in line of battle, Palmer's division on the 
right of the turnpike, his right resting on Kegley's left. Wood 
occupying that part of our front on the left of the pike extend- 
ing down to the river, and Van Cleve in reserve to the rear and 
left. This position was maintained without material change 
during the day, though the skirmishing was sometimes heavy, 
particularly on the right, where McCook was approaching. 

The entire cavalry force, except those detailed for escort and 
courier service, was engaged in guarding the flanks of the army. 
Some skirmishing occurred, but nothing of any importance. 
Just before midnight. General Stanley, with the 1st Tennessee 
and Anderson Cavalry, went back to Lavergne, for the purpose 
of protecting our communications. The commanding general 
remained with the left and centre, examining the ground, while 
General McCook moved forward from Wilkerson's Cross-Eoads. 
At four o'clock in the afternoon. General McCook announced 
his arrival on the Wilkerson pike, joining Thomas, and the fact 
that Sheridan was in position there, — also that Hardee's corps, 
with two divisions of Polk's, was on his front, extending down 
towards the Salem pike. 

Thus, on the night of the 30th of December the army of 
General Rosecrans, of forty-three thousand men, were drawn 
up in front of Murfreesborough, facing an enemy of considerably 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 391 

greater force. His line was continuous, about three miles lu 
length, describing an irregular figure, with reserves in position, 
and whose extreme riglit bore away from the left towards the 
southwest at an angle of about thirty degrees. The left rested on 
Stone Eiver, and the right on high wooded ground south of and 
near the Franklin pike. The extreme right bingade (Willich's) 
was formed at nearly right angles to the main line, making a 
bend towards the rear, to guard against a flank movement. 
The right wing occupied a wooded ridge with open ground in 
front, and was separated from the enemy by a narrow valley 
varying in Madth from two hundred to four hundred yards, 
which latter was covered by dense cedar thickets and oak 
forests. The centre was posted on a rolling slope in advance, 
joining Ci'ittenden's right and McCook's left. The right bri- 
gade of the left wing rested upon a wood, the next stretched 
across an open cotton-field into a thin grove, and the left bri- 
gades were also partially covered by timber, with open ground 
in front. The enemy occupied a commanding crest in the open 
field, perhaps eight hundred yards distant from our line. 

In rear of our line the country was undulating and rough, 
excepting on the left. Behind the right wing and centre there 
were alternate fallow fields, fences, and dense cedar thickets and 
ridges. Behind the left there was an undulating corn-field, rising 
into a crest which faced the enemy. On the right of the pike, 
going south, there was an irregular cotton-field, swelling to a 
crest and then falling off into thick-skirted swamps towards the 
north and into an open marsh towards the south, with its 
southern base fronting the centre of the enemy's right. 

The railroad on high ground, to the left of the pike, the turn- 
pike on low gi'ound, intersected the left wing on Palmer's left, 
and crossed each other near the rebel line in a depression form- 
ing a sharp triangle, the base of which, a half-mile in the rear, 
was about five hundred yards wide. About half-way between 
the two lines were the walls of a brick dwelling, now famous as 
"Cowan's burnt house," occupying a knoll. 

The enemy's right intersected Stone Eiver nearly parallel 



392 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



with our left front, and rested upon the heights east of the river, 
the extreme right obliquing to correspond with the course of 
the river towards our left. The left of their right and their 
centre were in position behind intrenchments on the crest of 
the cotton-field, sloping gradually towards our front and abruptly 
towards their rear. Their left was prolonged on a rocky ridge 
south of the Franklin road, and covered the roads going south- 
ward towards Shelbyville. The river was fordable at any place 
where it could be reached, so that, if necessary, the enemy could 
retire across it without trouble, and, with it in their front, could 
offer serious resistance to our forces should they attempt to 
advance across it. 

The following diagram will enable the reader to understand 
at a glance the positions of the two armies as they came together, 
faced in line of battle, on the evening of the 30th and morning 
of the 31st. 

DIAGRAM I. 




Positions of Contending Forces, Decennber 31, 1862, 5 o'clock A.M. 

At nine o'clock that night the corps commanders met at head- 
quarters, and the following plan. of bartle was presented to them. 

McCook was to occupy the most advantageous position, re- 
fusing his right as much as practicable and necessary to secure 
it, — to receive the attack of the enemy, or, if that did not come, 
to attack himself, and thus to hold all their force on his front. 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 393 

Thomas and Palmer were to open with skirmishing, and gain 
the enemy's centre and left as far as the river. 

Crittenden was to cross Van Cleve's division at the lower 
ford, covered and supported by the sappers and miners, and to 
advance on Breckinridge. 

Wood's division was to follow by brigades, crossing at the 
upper ford, and, moving on Van Cleve's right, to carry every 
thing before them into Murfreesborough. 

" This," said General Rosecrans in his official report, " would 
have given us two divisions against one, and as soon as Breckin. 
ridge had been dislodged from his position, the batteries of 
AYood's division, taking position on the heights east of Stone 
Eiver, in advance, would see the enemy's works in reverse, 
would dislodge them, and enable Palmer's division to press them 
back and drive them westward across the river or through the 
woods, while Thomas, sustaining the movement on the centre, 
would advance on the right of Palmer, crushing their right, 
and Crittenden's corps, advancing, would take Murfreesborough, 
and then, moving westward on the Franklin road, get in their 
flank and rear, and drive them into the country, towards Salem, 
with the prospect of cutting off their retreat and probably 
destroying their army. 

" It was explained to them that this combination, insuring us 
a vast superiority^ on our left, required for its success that Gene- 
ral McCook should be able to hold his position for three hours; 
that, if necessary to recede at all, he should recede as he had 
advanced on the preceding day, slowly and steadily, refusing his 
right, thereby rendering our success certain." 

The disposition of our forces on the morning of the 31st was 
as follows. To the left of the Xashville and Murfi-eesborough 
pike, one brigade of Wood's division formed the left of the 
Federal line ; Palmer's division was deployed to the right of the 
pike, leaving two brigades of Wood's and the whole of Van 
Cleve's division as the reserve of the left wing; then the 
centre, with Xegley's division deployed, and Pousseau's in re- 
serve, but so located as to be available at the extreme left as 



394 ARMY OF THE CtWIBERLAND. 

well as the centre. The three divisions of the right wing were 
deployed, extending the line a considerable distance beyond the 
Nolensville pike. The cavalry — two brigades — were equally 
divided upon the flanks. 

At daybreak the troops breakfasted and stood to their arms, 
awaiting the order to move. The movement was begun on the 
left by Van Cleve, who crossed at the lower fords, "Wood pre- 
paring to sustain and follow him. But meanwhile the enemy 
had apparently, and as if by some wonderful fatality, anticipated 
General Rosecrans's plan, and during the night had massed his 
foi'ces heavily in front of our right, advanced at early break of 
day, and with great vigor threw himself upon the extreme right 
of General McCook's line. Pressing rapidly forward in heavy 
columns, thoiigh losing largely at every step, he fell upon 
Willich's and Kirk's brigades of Johnson's division, who, after 
a desperate but unavailing contest, were driven back and 
crumbled to pieces, leaving Edgarton's and part of Goodspeed's 
batteries in the possession of the rebels. Edgarton had pre- 
viously sent his horses to water, and they were still unhitched. 
He had barely time to put them in harness when they were 
shot ; and, after firing a dozen rounds and having every horse 
killed, his guns and himself fell into the enemy's hands. Fol- 
lowing up this advantage, the enemy fiercely attacked Davis's 
division, and, after desperate fighting, dislodged Post's, Carlin's, 
and Woodruff's brigades. Johnson's division, in retiring, in- 
clined too far to the left, and also were too much scattered to 
make a combined resistance. The ground over which it passed, 
however, covered with the enemy's dead and those of our own 
men, showed that the field was warmly contested. Several 
times the lines were reformed and resistance was offered; but 
the columns of the enemy were too heavy for a single line, and 
the division in every case was compelled to fall back. 

The right and centre divisions of the right wing having thus 
given back, the attack was made with redoubled fury upon 
McCook's left, Sheridan's division. Here the enemy met with a 
successful resistance for a time; but, the lino on his right having 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. ?95 

given way, Sheridan was exposed in front, flank, and rear. 
Twice the heroic division changed front and hurled back the 
overwhelming mass of foes, and, when outflanked and neai-ly 
encircled, with every brigade commander killed or wounded, 
was retired in good order. Negley's division, hard pressed and 
out of ammunition, was also compelled to give way, and, with 
Sheridan, fell back through the cedar thickets. 

Our right wing was now thoroughly broken, and its retiricg 
divisions almost doubled backward upon the left. All had 
fought desperately, but all had been driven from their position. 
Eleven guns of Johnson's division and six of Sheridan's had 
been captured by the enemy. Hundreds of men had been killed 
and wounded, and nearly two thousand made prisoners. The 
enemy had gained sufiicient ground in our rear to wheel his 
masses to the right and throw them upon the right flank of the 
centre, at the same moment attacking I^egley and Palmer in 
front with a greatly superior force. The original plan of battle 
of our commander-in-chief was now utterly useless, the whole 
order of battle being changed; and so furious and persistent 
had been the assault and advance of the enemy that all this 
had occurred within scarcely two hours. 

A forward movement of Palmer's division, to occupy a favor- 
able crest preliminary to the grand assault by the left wing, 
was already in progress, when it was prevented by intelligence 
of the disaster to tlie right. While JSTegley's division was en- 
gaged, the reserve of the centre (Ij'ing behind the right brigade 
of the left wing) was ordered forward to his support. Rousseau's 
division moved into the cedars in Negley's rear and commenced 
its deployment. It was discovered at this critical moment that 
it was difiicult, if not impossible, to move the artillery from the 
narrow roads which had been cut through the thicket into a 
position where it could be used to advantage. The deployment 
of the infantry was effected, but without engaging, save a bat- 
talion on the right, which was suddenly assailed in flank by the 
enemy and partially confused. The entire division was moved a 
considerable distance to the rear, and finally formed upon favor- 



396 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

able ground directly in the rear of the right of Crittenden's 
wing. Neglej, of course, could do nothing less than fall back 
then : his line had, in fact, already yielded for want of support. 
Sheridan's glorious resistance and the firmness of JSTegley's men 
had, however, covered the perambulations of the reserve, and 
that force was in readiness to receive the enemy. 

At this stage it became necessary to readjust the line of 
battle to the new state of affairs. Rousseau and Van Cleve's 
advance having relieved Sheridan's division from the pressure, 
Neglej^'s division, and Cruft's brigade from Palmer's division, 
withdrew from their original position in front of the cedars, and 
crossed the open field to the east of the Murfreesborough pike, 
about four hundred yards in rear of our front line, where 
Negley was ordered to replenish his ammunition and form his 
reserve in close column. The right and centre of our line now 
extended from Hazen to the Murfreesborough pike, in a north- 
westerly direction, Ilascall supporting Hazen, Eousseau filling 
the interval to the Pioneer Brigade, ISTegley in reserve. Van 
Cleve west of the Pioneer Brigade, McCook's corps refused on 
his right and slightly to the rear on the Murfreesborough pike ; 
the cavalry being still farther to the rear on the Murfreesborough 
pike and beyond Overall's Creek. Palmer's division, the right of 
Crittenden's line, was the only one still remaining in the origi- 
nal position. 

The position of Greneral Eosecrans was now in the form of a 
crotchet, the shorter line being Palmer's division. The left of 
this division, now the left of the army, was to the left of and at 
right angles with the ISTashville pike, in a scanty grove of oaks, 
covering an inconsiderable crest betAveen the pike and the rail- 
road, which intersected at an acute angle, about four hundred 
yards in front. Stone River, crossing the pike some distance 
farther to the front, ran almost parallel and very near to it, 
within three hundred and fifty yards of Palmer's position, where 
it turned squarely to the left, and, continuing this course for 
several hundred yards, again turned and swept around towards 
the rear. The portion of the stream in front of Palmer's left 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 397 

■was deep, with but one narrow ford, thus forming an excellent 
flank defence. Between Palmer's two brigades in the front line 
was an open field of three hundred yards (the left brigade had 
occupied this field; but its commander, seeing the impossibility 
of sustaining an attack in low, open ground, within musket- 
range of the enemy's cover, had moved to occupy the favorable 
crest mentioned), the right brigade lying in the skirt of cedar 
wood. 

Palmer's division had sustained one attack successfully, and, 
while General Eosecrans was forming his new line, was assailed 
with extreme ferocity in front and upon the right flank, then 
exposed by the falling back of Negley. The right brigade was 
forced back in turn, exposing the left brigade to a flank attack 
and rendering the whole position critical. But Hazen, at the 
head of the left brigade, maintained his position with unflinch- 
ing courage and good success, until the forces on his right were 
overwhelmed and driven back. When this occurred he was ex- 
posed to fire in flank and rear, and to the attempts of the enemy 
to charge in front. Its commander had but one regiment to 
protect this flank, but was furnished with two battalions from the 
division reserve. It required terrible fighting to beat back the 
enemy's double lines in front and flank; it cost a third of the 
brave brigade; but every moment the enemy was held back was 
worth a thousand men to the main line. General Eosecrans 
improved the time so well, in hurrying troops to the new posi- 
tion, that when the enemy assailed that line the fresh divisions 
of Yan Cleve, Wood, and Eousseau, and the artillery massed on 
a commanding point, nOt only repulsed them, but they were 
charged while retiring by one of Crittenden's brigades. The 
enemy had also miscalculated the temper of Hazen's brigade, 
and Bragg was obliged to report, as he did in his first despatch, 
that he "had driven the whole Federal line, except his left, 
which stubbornly resisted." 

The force that followed to engage the new line, when Negley 
fell back, was undoubtedly designed to operate in conjunction 
with the one now endeavoring to crush the short arm (Palmer's 



898 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

division) of the crotchet line, and the two would then take the 
main Fedei-al line in front, flank, and rear, before its formation 
was complete. The plan was well devised; for, with the division 
protecting the left of his army removed, General Eosecrans's 
prospects would have been hopeless. The persistence and des- 
perate energy with which the enemy pressed this point indicated 
that they were fully aware of the advantage success here would 
give them. 

A single brigade of thirteen hundred men, a mere handful in 
comparison with the huge masses hurled against them, foiled 
every effort of the enemy at this vital point. For this scarcely 
less than miraculous result the country is indebted to the un- 
flinching courage of the men and the ability of their commander, 
who manoeuvred them with wonderful skill. When the enemy 
withdrew, the right of the brigade was swung to the rear, 
bringing it behind an embankment of the railroad, which 
formed a good breastwork and enabled it successfully to with- 
stand subsequent flank attacks. In the temporary cessation of 
fighting which ensued. General Eosecrans strengthened the 
point with infantry and artillery. 

But the battle was not yet ended. The enemy had been 
repulsed with terrible loss ; but it was hardly possible that he 
would yield the signal advantage his success in the earlier part 
of the day had given him, without at least one more desperate 
struggle. Evidently unwilling to abide the test of a single 
attack and repulse, he came forward again in solid columns; but 
it was now too late. Eosecrans had been personally on the 
field, and had newly formed his entire line of battle, having 
discovered the enemy's object. McCook's troops and Negley's 
division had been reformed in the new position. The enemy, 
though inflicting severe losses, was unable to force the line 
again, and was driven back with great slaughter. The right of 
his line, when it came up to assault for the fourth and last time 
Hazen's position on the left, was shattered and broken by a 
single volley, — such a change had repeated repulses made in the 



BATTLE or STONE RIVER, 899 

morale of troops that had fought with such frenzied desperation 
in the morning. 

The day was now nearly spent. The confidence of the enemy 
was obviously shaken by the bitter experience of the last three 
hours. Still he exhibited a bold front and threatening aspect. 
Again his forces were heavily massed in front of the centre, 
as though the hazard of another assault would be attempted. 
But our artillery played upon them so effectively that only a 
small force could be urged up to the range of our musketry, and 
they were speedily driven back. An answering effort was 
made by their artillery, which opened u.pon our lines terrifically; 
but at sunset the roar of battle had ceased, and only the occa- 
sional booming of a single cannon or the more frequent bxit less 
heeded rattle of musketry disturbed the stillness of the night 
that was fast settling down upon that field drenched with the 
blood of thousands and thickly strewn with dead and dying. 

"The day closed," said General Eosecrans, ".leaving us mas- 
ters of the original ground on our left, and our new line advan- 
tageously posted, with open ground in front, swept at all points 
by our artillery. "We had lost heavily in killed and wounded, 
and a considerable number in stragglers and prisoners; also 
twenty-eight pieces of artillery, the horses having been slain, 
and our troops being unable to withdraw them by hand over 
the rough ground ; but the enemy had been thoroughly handled 
and badly damaged at all points, having had no success where 
we had open ground and our troops were properly posted, — none 
which did not depend on the original crushing of our right and 
the superior masses which were in consequence brought to bear 
upon the narrow front of Sheridan's and Negley's divisions, and 
a part of Palmer's, coupled with the scarcity of ammunition, 
caused by the circuitous road which the train had taken and 
the inconvenience of getting it from a remote distance through 
the cedars." 

Head-quarters were established that night in a log hut on the 
right of the road, within short artillery-range of the rebel front, 
and there a conference of the generals was held. Some of them 



400 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

were rather despondent; but not one advised retreat. AlJ 
seemed to await the decision of the commander, with confidence 
in its wisdom. Indeed, there was much to sicken the heart, — 
much to depress the bravest and most sanguine of men. The 
day had begun in disaster, and it was not yet retrieved. More 
than seven tliousand men were missing from our ranks. Many 
of the regiments had lost two-thirds of their oificers ; scarcely 
one had escaped without loss. Willich and Kirk, Johnson's 
ablest brigadiers, were not present : the first was a 2:»risoner, 
the second desperately wounded. Sill, Schaefter, and Eoberts, 
Sheridan's brigade commanders, were dead. Wood and Van 
Cleve were disabled. Ten colonels, ten lieutenant-colonels, and 
six majors were missing, — dead, wounded, or prisoners. Of line 
ofiicers the number gone was terrible. Sheridan alone had lost 
seventy-two officers. Out of fourteen hundred, the United 
States Eegular Brigade had lost twenty-two officers and five 
hundred and eight men. The enemy held nearly two-thirds of 
the battle-field and one-fifth of our artillery. Communications 
were interrupted in our rear, and some of the subsistence-trains 
which had been ordered back to Nashville, to be out of our way 
and of danger, had been destroyed by rebel cavalry. Artillery 
ammunition was scant, and the rebel cavalry hovering in the 
rear made the obtaining of further supplies uncertain. The 
soldiers were weary and hungry, and now lay shivering in the 
cold December air, without fires. It was a gloomy night, — 
gloomy long before midnight, when the gathering clouds 
stretched across the heavens and poured upon the contending 
armies a deluge of rain, as if weeping over the slaughter. 

The second position of the two armjes, at the close of the battle 
of the 31st, is illustrated in the diagram on the opposite page. 

The advantage was with the enemy thus far, and it was 
deemed probable that he would renew the attack in the morning : 
the question was how and where to meet him. The rebel 
leaders — as was subsequently ascertained — had no doubt that 
General Eosecrans would attempt to fall back on Nashville. 
But he had no such thought. Mounting his horse, he rode to the 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 



401 



rear, examined the country, returned, and said to those aboui 
him, " Gentlemen, we conquer or die right here." If foi*ced to 
fall back, he concluded that a successful stand could be made on 
the south bank of Overall's Creek j but he had no idea of taking 

DIAGRAM II. 




Lines of Contending Forces on the Night Of December, 31, 1862. 

that position until driven to it. He found that he had ammuni- 
tion enough for another battle, the only question being where 
it should be fought. By his personal exertions he had that day 
checked the tide of a terrible disaster, reformed his army in the 
face of the attacking enemy, rolled back their columns with 
appalling slaughter, and, if he had not achieved a great victory, 
had prevented a signal defeat. The same determ-ination and 
hope which had inspired him in the darkest houi'S of that day's 
conflict were with him still, and, with unshaken .reliance upon 
his ti'usty soldiers and implicit faith in a guiding Providence, 
he determined to fight and to conquer. 

The consultation having resulted thus, arrangements were 
planned for the morrow. It was decided, in order to complete 
our present lines, that the left should retire two hundred and fifty 
yards to more advantageous ground, the extreme left resting on 
Stone River, above the lower ford, and extending to Stokes's 
battery. Starkweather's and Walker's brigades arriving near 

the close of the evening, the former bivouacked in close column, 

26 



402 ARMY OF THE CtTMBERLANO. 

in reserve, in the rear of McCook's left, and the latter was 
posted on the left of Sheridan, near the MurfreesDorough pike, 
and next morning relieved Van Cleve, who returned to his posi- 
tion in the left wing. 

It was also determined to await the enemy'8 attack in that 
position, to send for the provision-train, and order up fresh 
Bupplies of ammunition, on the arrival of which, should the 
enemy not attack, offensive operations were to be resumed. 

At daybreak on Thursday (New-Year's day), General Eose- 
crans had his army in a position against which the enemy might 
have hurled his masses in vain. McCook's corps was disposed 
thus :— Davis on the right, Sheridan joining him on the left, and 
Johnson in reserve. Walker's brigade, relieving Van Cleve, 
was succeeded on Sheridan's left by Starkweather's brigade. 
Thomas's position was not changed. Crittenden had reunited 
his command, bringing them all together on the left of the turn- 
j/lke, and took up a new line of battle about five hundred yards 
to the rear of the former line ; Hascall's division rested its 
right on the position occupied by Stokes's battery, and its left 
on Palmer's right ; Palmer rested his left on the ford, his right 
extending perpendicularly towards the railroad, thus bringing 
the line at right angles to the railroad and turnpike, and extend- 
ing from Stokes's battery to the ford. 

The enemy making no demonstration in the morning, Crit- 
tenden, in accordance with orders, sent Colonel Sam Beatty, 
with two brigades of Van Cleve's division, across Stone Eiver, to 
hold a hill overlooking and commanding the upper ford, a mile 
below the railroad-bridge in front of Murfreesborough. During 
the day repeated attempts were made by the enemy to advance 
upon the centre ; but they were kept back by a heavy artillery 
fire, and once were severely repulsed by Morton's Pioneer Bri- 
gade. About two o'clock in the afternoon, having previously 
shown signs of movement and massing on our right, the enemy 
appeared at the extremity of a field a mile and a half from the 
Murfreesborough pike; but the presence of Gibson's brigade, 
with a battery, occupying the woods near Overull's Creek, and 



BATTLE ON STONE RIVER. 403 

Negley's division and a portion of Eousseau's on the Murfrees- 
borough pike, opposite the field, put an end to this demonstra- 
tion. The day closed with a similar demonstration on Walker's 
brigade, which ended in the same manner. 

About eight o'clock on Friday morning, while the Pioneer 
Brigade were making crossings at the railroad, the enemy 
opened a sharp and rapid fire from four heavy batteries on the 
east side of Stone River, and at the same time made a strong 
demonstration of attack a little farther to the right ; but a well* 
directed fire of artillery soon silenced his batteries, while the 
guns of Walker and Sheridan put an end to his eifort there. 

General Eosecrans still had faith in his proposed movement 
of throwing his left Aving into Murfreesborough, and early in 
the afternoon rode towards the river to examine the position of 
Crittenden's left, across the stream, — the position being held by 
Van Cleve's division, supported by one of Palmer's brigades. 
At about three o'clock a double line of I'ebel skirmishers was 
seen to emerge from the woods in a southeasterly direction^ 
advancing down the fields, and were soon followed by heavy 
columns of infantry, battalion front, with three batteries of 
artillery. The only battery on that side of the river was 
speedily placed in position, and at once opened upon the enemy. 
Their line, however, advanced steadily to within one hundred 
yards of Van Cleve's front, and began a furious attack. Their 
assault had all the vigor and rapidity that characterized the 
grand operation of Wednesday upon McCook. Van Cleve's 
division was driven from its position by overwhelming numbers, 
its fire scarcely lessening the speed of the advance, and retired 
in considerable confusion across the river, closely followed by 
the enemy. On came the entire right wing of the rebel army, 
in three heavy lines of battle, sweeping down the sloj)e of a 
wide cotton-field, and to the very edge of the river. 

Meanwhile, General Crittenden's chief of artillery had massed 
his batteries along the rising ground on the west side of the river, 
80 as to sweep and enfilade the enemy, while our own left wing 
was well posted for their reception, and reserves were on their 



404 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

way. Fifty-eight cannon were soon pointing across the water 
and pouring forth their fiery streams of death. General Eose- 
crans had his army well in hand for a movement in any direc- 
tion, and to quickly reinforce. A rapid counter-movement was 
made against the flank of the advancing enemy. The firing 
from both artillery and musketry was incessant, and the 
slaughter terrible. On came the rebel masses; and, as our 
artillery ploughed furrows through their columns, they wera 
seen to close up, men rushing forward from the rear ranks to 
fill the gaps. So near was their approach that here, there, all 
along their front, their troops were seen to drop, incessantly, 
and occasionally by twos and threes, from the showering bullets 
of our musketry. Their front ranks were seen to waver, — the 
fire had become so murderous. Pushed and cheered on by 
their rear lines, they again advanced. A few yards farther 
down the glade, and again they wavered, and again they stag- 
gered on. A third time, and when almost at the river's brink, 
they stopped, some of them even stepping into the water. It 
was too much for human endurance : they gave way. As our 
troops now sj^rung upon them with the bayonet, fording the 
river, they began to fall back, — their retreat soon becoming a 
rout. They fled back over the ground upon which they had 
advanced, helter-skelter, throwing down their guns and all that 
would impede their flight. Our troops pushed after them up- 
wards of half a mile, with cheers upon cheers, which were soon 
taken up and repeated along our entire line. The lost ground 
from which Yan Cleve's forces had been driven was left far in 
the rear, and the rebels retreated beyond their original lines, 
having lost in forty minutes two thousand men. General Davis 
took one of his brigades and crossed at a ford below to attack 
the enemy on his left flank, and, by General McCook's order, 
the rest of his division followed ; but when he arrived, two 
brigades of IvTegley's division, led by the glorious 19th Illinois, 
and Hazen's brigade of Palmer's division, had pursued the flying 
enemy across the field, capturing four pieces of artillery and a 
stand of colors. Darkness was now upon us, and put an end to 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 405 

the pursuit, or the enemy would have been followed into Mur- 
freesborough. Crittenden's entire corps, however, passed over, 
and with Davis occupied the ground of our advance, which was 
formidably intrenched during the night. 

This defeat of Breckinridge, so terrible in its mortality, im- 
parted a new aspect to the situation. The Union army was 
exultant, and the more so because of its misfortunes on the 31st. 
The enemy had repeated his grand, sudden, and dashing attack 
upon the other wing of our army, and had been defeated. 
Long after dark, volleys of musketry were fired from the ad- 
vance-pickets of the two armies, — so near were they stationed, — 
when rounds of cheers would go up from our lines, extending 
from one extremity to the other. What was the rebel plan of 
attack upon this occasion it is difficult to surmise. We have 
Bragg's version of it in his official report, in which he dis- 
ingenuously attempts to lessen it in importance. His troops 
apparently aimed to cross the river with a rush and a storm, 
seize our batteries amid the confusion, as they did on our right, 
two days before, and drive back our left ujjon its centre, thus 
gaining the high ground we occupied on both sides of the river; 
from which position we constantly threatened their right, with 
nothing to prevent our swinging around and flanking or driving 
it, gaining their rear, and, over open and unobstructed fields, 
pushing in to Murfreesborough. The rebels were as greatly 
depressed by this result as the Federals were encouraged. Their 
first onset we had repelled after eight hours of unparalleled fight- 
ing, and had inflicted upon them even the greater loss; and their 
second had been nipped almost in the bud. The two armies had 
measured strength, and they were vanquished. The next day 
Bragg and his generals took council, and resolved to retreat, — 
and at night, — to avoid another battle. This decision was made 
In the forenoon. At three o'clock p.m. of that day, the rear rebel 
columns began their march from the battle-field, and through 
Murfreesborough towards the Tennessee Eiver, leaving their 
front ranks in battle-line and keeping up brisk picket-firing at 
times, to cloak their retreat. Soon after dusk, their rear columns 



406 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

of exhuusted and dispirited troops moved out from their m- 
trencliments, and ere midnight of Saturday, January 3, 1863, 
amidst a wintry and tempestuous rain-storm, the grand army of 
Bragg, which had gone out to speedily annihilate Eosecrans or 
drive him back to Nashville and there besiege and capture him, 
had passed through Murfreesborough, — their rear columns a 
mob, — moving through mud and slush and darkness, — the con- 
fusion being worse confounded by the pelting storm and the bustle 
of hundreds of rebel townsmen and farmers, with vehicles of all 
descriptions, hastily laden with household stuif, who until a few 
hours before had been assured that all was going well, — that 
Bragg's army was victorious, and that Eosecrans was in full 
preparation for, if not in full tide of, retreat. The history of 
the retreat of Bragg's army, and the attendant fright and flight 
of the people of Murfreesborough and vicinity, afford a rare 
theme for pen and pencil. But to resume our narrative. 

Soon after the battle just described, rain set in, and at day- 
break next morning it was pouring down in torrents. The roads, 
camps, and fields were a wide expanse of mud; and military 
operations on any considerable scale were impossible. The 
ploughed ground over which the left was to have advanced was 
impassable for artillery, and the ammunition-trains did not arrive 
until ten o'clock. It was, therefore, determined to make no ad- 
vance; but batteries were placed in position on the left, by which 
the ground could be swept, and even Murfreesborough reached, 
by the Parrott guns. The enemy kept up a constant picket-firing 
along the front, which at last became so annoying that General 
Eosecrans, in the afternoon, ordered the corps commanders " to 
clear their fronts," — which was speedily effected. General Eous- 
seau's front, however, was still harassed by the sharpshooters 
occupjnng the woods to the left of the Murfreesborough pike 
and " the Burnt House." A number of his men having been 
killed and wounded, General Thomas and himself obtained per- 
mission to dislodge them and their supports, they covering a 
ford. A sharp fire from four batteries was opened for ten or 
fifteen minutes, when Eousseau at dark sent two of his regiments, 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 



407 



wnich, with Spear's Tenncsseeans and the 85th Illinois Volun- 
teers, who had come out with the wagon-train, charged upon 
the enemy, and, after a sharp contest, cleared the woods and 
drove him from his trenches, capturing from seventy to eighty 
prisoners. 

The following diagram illustrates this advance of Breckinridge 
upon our left, his retreat, and the advance of our troops to a 
new position. The positions on our right were not changed by 
this battle ; and thus both armies rested when the rebels evacu- 
ated Murfreesborough. 



DIAGRAM III. 




Lines of Contending Forces on January 2, 1863. 

The next day being Sunday, it was probable that no offensive 
movements would take place on General Eosecrans's part. The 
night was no improvement on the previous one. It still rained 
incessantly. Every thing possible was done for the wounded, 
who had suffered greatly from the inclemency of the weather. 
About midnight, signs of a freshet appearing in Stone Eiver, 
the left wing was withdrawn to the east side before daylight. 
Sunday dawned fair. Ere long news was brought that the 
enemy had fled 3 and the army rested, with the exception of the 
burial -parties and the cavalry, the latter following the enemy to 
reconnoitre. 

Early Monday morning, General Thomas advanced into 



408 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Murfreesborough, driving the rear-guard of the ]-ebel cavalry 
before him six or seven miles towards Manchester. McCook's 
and Crittenden's corps, following, took position in front of the 
town, occupying Murfreesborough. It was now ascertained that 
the enemy's infantry had reached Shelbyville by twelve M. on 
Sunday; but, owing to the impracticability of bringing up sup- 
plies, and the loss of five hundred and fifty-seven artillery horses, 
further pursuit was deemed inadvisable. 

Of the results of the battle of Stone Eiver we give the follow- 
ing general summary. We moved on the enemy with 41,421 
infantry; 2223 artillery ; 3296 cavalry : total, 46,940. We fought 
the battle with 37,977 infantry; 2223 artillery; 3200 cavalry: 
total, 43,400. We lost in killed, 92 officers; 1441 enlisted men: 
total, 1533. We lost in wounded, 384 officers; 6861 enlisted men : 
total, 7245. Total killed and wounded, 8778, — ^being 20.03 per 
cent, of the entire force in action. Our loss in prisoners was 
less than 3000. The enemy's force is estimated by General Eose- 
crans at over 62,000; and the reasoning by which he supports 
the estimate would seem to be conclusive.* 

Thus ended the series of skirmishes and two grand battles at 
Stone Eiver in front of Murfreesborough. The result of the 
enemy's retreat was the loss to the rebellion of Middle Ten- 
nessee and all hopes of an immediate lodgment upon the navi- 
gable waters of the Cumberland and Tennessee Elvers. Also 
it secured Kentucky from rebel advance in force, save by cir- 
cuitous and hazardous marches through East Tennessee and the 
gaps of the Cumberland Mountains. Their retreat was truly a 
death-blow to the hopes of the rebel citizens of Nashville and 
throughout Tennessee and Kentucky. Up to that period the 
secessionists were confident that Bragg's great army would 
vanquish Eosecrans and drive him from their soil. Their sur- 
prise and bitter sorrow over his defeat were depicted on many a 
clouded brow, and were described by themselves in hundreds 



* In the Appendix to this work we publish the oflScial reports of General? 
Rosecrans and Bragg, for future reference and candid criticism. 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. 409 

of intercepted letters. Above all, the result at Stone Eiver 
destroyed the self-confidence of Bragg and his army. His trooj^s 
were mainly from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Missis- 
sippi, — confessedly the best fighting-men of the so-called Con- 
federacy. And these men were here upon their own threshold, 
— battling, as their leaders would fain make them believe, for 
their homes, their altars, ana their firesides. The rebels had 
not yet fathomed the hollowness of their belief that each one of 
them was equal to three or even five of Rosecrans's men. How 
soon and how effectually this error was cut up by the roots, is 
attested by those awful battle-scenes and their clearly defined 
result. This point is thoroughly elaborated by Captain W. D. 
Bickham in his thrilling little volume entitled " Eoseci-ans's 
Campaign with the 14th Army Corps," from which work we 
copy as follows : — 

" Bragg, confident in the superb discipline of his army, had 
misconceived the fighting qualities of our men. He assumed that 
at least half of Rosecrans's forces were raw, and therefore unre- 
liable. He, therefore, not only concluded to give battle at Stone 
River, but it is asserted that he was preparing to fall suddenly 
upon the divisions at Gallatin, menacing I^ashville with a suffi- 
cient force to prevent Eosecrans from sending succor to the 
forces at the former points. 

" It is certain that he was sanguine of success, and his defeat, 
although compensated in some degree by his success of "Wednes- 
day, was a sore disappointment. Had he been satisfied to with- 
draw from Murfreesborough Wednesday night, the prestige of 
victory would have remained with him for a little while, though 
he would have been bitterly pursued and at all hazards. Bragg's 
mode of fighting was characteristic of the Southern people. It 
was all dash, and the admirable discipline of his troops told 
fearfully at every onset. They charged with splendid daring. 
But it was evident that they were best in onset. They did not 
at any time display the staunch stand-up fighting pluckiness 
which distinguished our troops. Where two lines were con- 
fronted in the field, man for man, the superiority of our troops 



410 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

•was at once made manifest. Northern phlegm was too much 
for Southern fire. Their troops fought ferociously, ours with 
bitter determination. Now and then some of our regiments, 
galled to death by their marksmen, would rush infuriately for- 
ward and drive every thing before them. The rebels never 
attempted to resist a charge, though our troops resisted mad 
charges by them repeatedly. They overwhelmed the right wing 
and the 3d division of the left by avoirdupois, — not by fighting. 
Their grand tactics were consj^icuous in this battle as they were 
at Gaines's Mills, where they defeated Fitz-John Porter, who, if 
he had possessed the skill of Eosecrans, would have utterly 
defeated the enemy, though vastly outnumbered by them. The 
rebel artiller}- practice was very fine. They had exact range 
all over our position. It was often remarked in the midst of 
battle that their gunners were very skilful. Nevertheless, the 
superiority of our artillery was established. Their sharpshooters 
were their most formidable arm. They swarmed in the forests, 
and during Wednesday there was not a point on the battle-field 
that was not within their range. Half of our officers who were 
wounded were struck by them. In McCook's front they had 
constructed platforms among the branches of the trees, from 
which to practise their devilish arts. Their mounted infantry 
were also signally serviceable to them. Without them their 
cavalry would not have been able to cut our communications so 
successfully. In fine, the rebels again illustrated. in this battle 
the fact that they had thoroughly devoted themselves to war, 
— that the}'- had rejected all theories; that they had adopted 
the wisest maxims of warfare, and had accepted the admonitions 
of experience. It was curious, however, that Bragg, whose 
reputation as an artillery ofiicer stood highest in that branch 
of the service, should have been so thoroughly beaten with his 
favorite arm." 

The contest at Stone Eiver was one of the most memorable 
of the war up to that period. Nor has a battle since been fought 
attended with such mortality, such heroism, and such directly 
important results. As more recent events have shown, it de- 



wheeler's repulse at lavergne. 411 

stroyed the rebellion in Tennessee and struck a death-blow at 
the heart of the pretentious Southern Government. The loyal 
people of our country were paralj'zed while the battles raged, 
and were correspondingly electrified at the result. The follow- 
ing telegraphic despatches transmitted to General Eosecrans 
breathed the heartfelt thanks of a grateful people to the heroes, 
dead and living, of Stone Eiver : — 

" Washington, January 5. 
" To Major-Gexeral Rosecraxs : — 

"Your despatch, announcing the retreat of the enemy, has just reached 
here. God bless you and all with you ! Please tender to all, and accept for 
yourself, the nation's gratitude for your and their skill, endurance, and 
dauntless courage. A. Lincoln." 

" Washington, January 9, 1863. 
" Major-General Rosecrans, Commanding Army of the Ctimberland : — 

" General : — Rebel telegrams fully confirm your telegrams from the battle- 
field. The victory was well earned, and one of the most brilliant of the war. 
You and your brave army have won the gratitude of your country and the 
admiration of the world. The field of Murfreesborough is made historical, 
and future generations will point out the place where so many heroes fell 
. gloriously in defence of the Constitution and the Union. All honor to the 
Army of the Cumberland ! Thanks to the living, and tears for the lamented 
dead. H. W. Halleck." 



WHEELER'S EEPULSE AT LAVERGNE. 

"While the battle was raging before Murfreesborough, a most 
brilliant and decisive affair occurred at Lavergne, — which, the 
reader will remember, is a small village lying midway between 
Murfreesborough and Nashville, on the direct pike. 

The 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics had been left at 
that place to protect communication, and had taken position on 
an elevated piece of ground in the rear of the village, surround- 
ing themselves with a barricade of cedar brush, much in the 
nature of a common brush fence. The command numbered 
three hundred and ninety-one, officers and men. About two 
o'clock in the afternoon, the rebel General Wheeler, who had 



412 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

been busying himself in destroying trains upon the road, sud- 
denly appeared before Colonel Innes's improvised fort with a 
force of about three thousand men and two pieces of artillery, 
demanding an immediate surrender. This was refused, and a 
charge made upon the garrison ; but the rebels were spiritedly 
repulsed and driven into the neighboring thickets. Seven times 
the enemy attempted to carry the flimsy work, and seven times 
they were driven back with heavy loss. The scene was at 
times thrilling beyond desci'iption. The rebel horde, exas- 
perated at the successful resistance of the little force, dashed 
their horses against the circular brush fence, which was only 
breast-high, with infuriate shouts and curses. But the Michigan 
troops were cool and determined : they loaded fast and aimed 
well, and, as the troopers rushed on upon all sides, they were 
met with staggering volleys almost at the muzzles of the 
muskets. Horses and riders recoiled again and again, until 
they despaired, and soon swept away through the dense forests, 
leaving over fifty of their dead upon the field, which were 
buried by our forces. The ground all around that small circle 
of cedar brush was strewn with dead horses of the rebel 
troopers, and with their clothing, guns, &c. Truly, this was 
one of the most gallant affairs of the campaign. 

Meanwhile Colonel Innes had sent a messenger to Colonel 
Eurke, at Stewart's Creek, five miles to the south, for assist- 
ance. The latter, with a portion of his regiment (the 10th 
Ohio), hastened rapidl}^ to the scene of the conflict; but before 
he reached it the enemy had fled. For the gallantry displayed 
in this engagement, the Michigan Engineers Eegiraent was sub- 
sequently highly complimented by the commanding general. 



OUR ARMY AT MURPREESBOROUGH. 

Head-quarters were established in Murfreesborough on Mon- 
day, the 5th of January, 1863. Taking up a position in front of 



OUB ARMY AT MURFREESBOROUGH, 413 

the town, our exhausted army calmly settled down into the 
quiet of camp-life. The Pioneer Brigade and Michigan En- 
gineers immediately began to rebuild the railroad and pike 
bridges across Stone Eiver, and to repair the road beyond. The 
construction of a series of extensive earthworks, completely 
encircling the town, was entered upon, with a view of making it 
a base of future operations and an intermediate depot of sup- 
plies. Foraging-trains scoured the country in every direction, 
and collected grain and stock. A deserted mill was put into 
operation, and the troops supplied with meal. Preparations for 
advance movements were being made extensively; but the 
rainy season, now setting in, effectually put an end to present 
offensive operations. The constant and extraordinarily heavy 
rains, however, were not without beneficial results. The Cum- 
berland Eiver rose rapidly, and for months was navigable. 
Supplies were hurried forward and began to accumulate in large 
quantities at both Nashville and Murfreesborough. So passed 
the months of winter and spring, but not in idleness nor un- 
marked by important events. 

On the 9th of January the army was divided into three corps 
d'armee, — the 14th, 20th, and 21st, — commanded by Major-G-ene- 
rals Thomas, McCook, and Crittenden, respectively. 

The limits of a single chapter will not allow a detailed ac- 
count of the most important expeditions and engagements 
which have occurred within the lines of the department; while 
many interesting minor events must be entirely ignored. All 
*hat can be attempted is an intelligible account of the consider- 
able battles that have been fought, with allusions to some of the 
many expeditions which have been sent into the surrounding 
country in every direction. 



414 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 



rOEAGING AND SCOUTING. 

The general and his officers were now occupied with the usual 
routine of business. The quiet of camp-life was enlivened, how- 
ever, by the almost daily outgoing and incoming of foraging- 
trains, and occasionally the departure or return of a more 
formidable expedition, — usually cavalry, sometimes infantry, 
not unfrequently both. Of the former the experiences were 
as varied as their number. On other pages some of the in- 
cidents which befell those participating in them are related; 
and it is only necessary to say here that they were almost in- 
variably attended with success, bringing in large amounts of 
wheat, corn, bacon, and stock. Of the larger expeditions a few 
of the more noted, with their results, are briefly narrated in the 
course of this chapter, and from them the character of the whole 
must be determined. The enemy was not idle. His cavalry, 
too, were out scouring the country, and occasionally our men 
and wagons were picked up by him. The grand object of his 
efforts was to cut off our communications and interrupt our 
supplies. To this end, the steamers upon the Cumberland were 
sharply watched, and more than one, in an unwary moment, 
was captured, robbed, and burned. 

On the 31st of January, Brigadier-General Jefferson C. Davis 
with his division of infantry, and two brigades of cavalry, thirteen 
hundred and twenty-eight men, under command of Colonel 
Minty, left camp at Murfreesborough for an extended scout in 
the direction of Eover, Eagleville, and Franklin. Colonel Minty 
was ordered to proced to Versailles, where G-eneral Davis would 
form a junction with him. Sending two regiments, under Colo- 
nel Cook, to Middleton and Unionville, Colonel Minty proceeded 
to Versailles, and there learned that a body of four hundred 
rebel ca-\(alry were at Eover. Proceeding to the latter place, he 
drove in the pickets, charged upon the main body, and routed 
them, driving them at a sharp gallop through the town, killisig 
one, wounding forty-nine, and capturing forty-nine, — six of 



FORAGING AND SCOUTING. 415 

whom were officers. Among the prisoners were thirteen wounded, 
and all but one with the sabre. Not having heai'd from Colonel 
Cook, Colonel Mintyproceeeded to Unionville, driving the enemy 
before him into and out of that town, and remained there 
about an hour. At this time a messenger arrived fi*om Colonel 
Cook, stating that he had surprised a rebel force at Middleton 
and captured Colonel Douglas, a captain, a lieutenant, and forty- 
one men. The enemy had been reinforced and attacked him in 
turn, and he was in need of reinforcements. Ordering him to fall 
back to Eagleville, Colonel Minty joined him at that place, finding 
there also General Davis and division, who had met no enemy. 

The next day Colonel Minty proceeded to Peytonville, intend- 
ing to cross the Harpeth near that place and form a junction 
with Genei'al Davis near Boyce's Creek. Finding the bridges 
burned and no ford near by, he took the road to Poplar Grove, 
crossed at the ford west of the pike, and camped for the night 
beyond the junction with the Eagleville pike. The next day 
(February 2) he marched rapidly on Franklin, and found Gene- 
ral Davis in possession of the place. Moving out on the Carter's 
Creek pike, he camped five and a half miles from Franklin, on 
the road leading to Hillsborough. On the 5th he passed through 
Hillsborough, on the 6th moved forward to Kinderhook, and, 
taking the road to Charlotte, camped after dark one mile south 
of the road leading from Nashville to Centreville. During 
the day Colonel Minty captured a colonel and major upon 
Forrest's staff, and two lieutenants and twenty-three men of 
Forrest's and "Wharton's escort, one of them a courier with de- 
spatches for the latter. On the 7th the force returned to Franklin. 
On the 10th Colonel Minty camped on the north side of the 
Harpeth, and on the 12th marched through Triune to Eagle- 
ville. On the 13th General Davis returned to Murfreesborough; 
and Colonel Minty, with five hundred men, moved on Eover, 
drove the enemy out of that town, and arrived at Murfrees- 
borough after dark. During the scout the cavalry caj)tured 
one hundred and forty-one prisoners, including tw^o colonels, one 
major, four captains, seven lieutenants, and one hundred and 



41(5 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

twenty-seven enlisted men. The only casualties upon our side 
were, one man severely and one dangerously wounded. 

While this expedition was absent, events of greater magni- 
tude were transpiring in another portion of the department. 
On Wednesday, the 3d of February, the rebel Generals Wheeler, 
Forrest, and Wharton, with a force of eleven regiments of 
cavalry and nine pieces of artillery, suffered a 



EEPULSE AT POET DONELSON. 

On the 2d it was known that Forrest, with a command nine 
hundred strong, had taken position at Palmyra, for the purpose 
of interrupting the navigation of the Cumberland. Scouting- 
parties were sent out to watch his movements, and early on the 
morning of the 3d it was announced that the enemy was ad- 
vancing upon the fort in force, both from above and below. The 
garrison of that fort consisted of nine companies of the 83d 
Illinois, a battalion of the 5th Iowa Cavalry, Flood's battery, and 
some wounded men, — in all less than eight hundred, — under 
the command of Colonel A. C. Harding, of the 83d Illinois. In 
addition to the battery, consisting of four rifled pieces, a single 
thirty-two-pounder siege-gun was mounted upon the northwest 
corner of the fort, near the old court-house. The cavalry was 
at once sent out on the different roads ; one company of the 83d 
were deployed as skirmishers to the southward, near the out- 
posts, and another on the ridge to the east, thus guarding the 
main approaches to the position. At about half-past one, the 
rebel commander sent in a flag of truce, demanding the sur- 
render of the post and gax'rison, which was promptly refused; 
and Colonel Harding began vigorous preparations for defence. 

One gun of the battery was placed upon a hill on the Fort 
Henry road, near the southwest corner of the fort, overlooking 
Colonel Harding's encampment and the surrounding country. 
Believing that the enemj^ would attempt to cut off communica- 
tion with Fort Henry and thus make this the key to his position, 
Colonel Harding sent three companies of his regiment to sup- 



REPULSE AT FORT DONELSON. 417 

port this gun. Another gun, supported by two companies, was 
ordered into position to the east of the I'ifle-pits, and a third 
was stationed behind the redoubts, at the southw^est corner of 
the base. The siege-gun before mentioned as in position was a 
pivot-gun, and commanded every approach. The enemy now- 
placed in position four guns, and opened a heavy fire upon the 
gun at the east end of the rifle-pits and the force upon the 
hill near the Fort Henry road. The companies of the 83d, 
not acting as supports to the guns in position, were deployed in 
a deep ravine on the west, where they were completely sheltered 
from the enemy's artillery. The latter now had nine guns in 
position, and were raining a constant stream of shot and shell 
upon Cqlonel Harding's small forces, occasionally changing their 
situation, in order to make their fire more effective. A heavy 
force was now menacing the position commanding the Fort 
Henry road, and the gun at the rifle-pits was sent to its defence. 
The enemy next attempted a charge from the low ground 
towards the river, but were driven back by the fire of the last 
gun of Flood's battery, placed in position for that purpose. All 
the guns were eventually concentrated on the liill, under the 
direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, wliere they did good 
execution until their ammunition was exhausted, when they 
were retired with difficulty, as they had suffered severely in 
both men and horses. In the end one was lost, but the remain- 
ing three were brought safely ofl". 

Forrest now led his large command of mounted men down 
the river to a point near the jail, and then by the flank up the 
street to the southward, forming them into successive lines of 
battle, which filled the whole open space in front of the fort. 
Eending the air with horrid yells, they advanced to the charge. 
In an instant the siege-gun was double-shotted with canister, 
turned upon them, and discharged into their ranks, blowing to 
atoms one of their number who was within ten feet of its 
muzzle, and making terrible havoc in the main body beyond. 
The infantry from the ravine now poured a galling musketry- 
fire upon the rebels at the crest of the ridge, and, with the aid 

27 



418 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 1 

of the siege-gun, still belching forth its double charges of canis- 
ter, checked their advance. While the column yet wavered, 
a bayonet-charge was ordered and the ground soon cleared, the 
enem}" leaving forty prisoners in our hands. Again and again 
the charge was essayed, but each time was gallantly repulsed. 
In the last attenipt, Colonel McISTairy, of Nashville, was shot 
down while vainly endeavoring to rally his men, recoiling 
before the deadly fire from the fort. 

Our artillery had now been withdrawn to the rear, and the 
force lying in the ravine near the siege-gun were ordered to the 
support of the right, where the rebels were advancing in large 
numbers. Advancing in line of battle, our forces drove the 
enemy before them until they came within range, when.the lipe 
was halted and volley after volley delivered, till our ammunition 
was exhausted. The line moved towards a point known as 
"Mrs. Coble's House," where they were to some extent sheltered 
by the crest of the bluff. The enemy's firing had now ceased, 
and he was evidently preparing for another and final charge. 
Destitute of ammunition and far inferior in numbers, the situa- 
tion of Colonel Harding's force was critical j but he was prepared 
for the emergency. A charge was ordered towards the rifle-pits 
and the ammunition. Advancing with wild shouts, the gallant 
Illinoisians drove the rebels before them in every direction 
and reached the position in safety. It was now too late for 
their artillery to inflict serious injury, and our men were dis- 
posed among the rifle-pits, where ammunition was distributed 
to them. The siege-gun, short of friction-primers, was imper- 
fectly spiked and abandoned. Colonel Harding, placing his 
men to the best advantage, kept up a constant fire upon the 
enemy until about eight o'clock in the evening, when another 
flag of truce was sent in, Forrest again demanding a surrender, 
and saying that they had not yet brought into action half their 
number. The surrender was refused, as before, and the rebels, 
deeming further contest useless, retired in confusion. 

In this gallant defence against immensely superior numbers, 
our loss was thirteen killed, fifty-one wounded, and twenty 



BATTLE OP SPRING HILL. 419 

taken prisoners, not including a captain and twenty-six men of 
the command who were captured the same day while out on a 
scout. We also lost one gun without the caisson, and twenty- 
five mules and forty-two horses, killed, wounded, and captured. 
The enemy's loss, as far as could be ascertained, was two hun- 
dred and fifty killed, one hundred and fifty-five of whom were 
buried by our forces, six hundred wounded, and one hundred 
and five prisoners. 

Thus far every thing had gone prosperously in the depart- 
ment. Constant success had attended our arms in the numerous 
skirmishes and scouts, and a large rebel force had been igno- 
miniously defeated by a mere handful at Fort Donelson. The 
same success might reasonably be expected to crown our efforts 
in the future, and the army was hopeful and enthusiastic, con- 
fident in themselves and in their leaders. Foraging-trains still 
went out, expeditions of cavalry still roamed at will through 
the country, and all returned without disaster. The enemy 
was heard of and seen occasionally, but seldom made a stand; 
and in time it began to be questioned whether he would fight at 
all, after his experience at Stone Eiver and since. So it con- 
tinued for days and weeks, until suddenly the camps were 
startled by the news of the defeat and capture of a brigade 
at the 

BATTLE OP SPEING HILL. 

On the 4th of March, an expedition under the command of 
Colonel John Coburn, of the 33d Indiana, and consisting of parts 
of the 3od and 85th Indiana, 22d Wisconsin, and 19th Michigan, 
numbering in all fifteen hundred and eighty-nine, together with 
the 124th Ohio, and six hundred cavalry (detachments from the 
2d Michigan, 9th Pennsylvania, and 4th Kentucky, under the 
command of Colonel Jordan, of the 9th Pennsylvania), and one 
battery of six small guns, was ordered to proceed from Franklin 
to Spring Hill, ten miles south on the Columbia pike and thirty 
miles from Nashville. About four miles out it met the enemy, 



420 ARMY OF TOE CUMBERLAND, 

and after a sharp skirmish drove them back, without loss on 
our side. Their loss was fifteen killed and wounded. Moving 
forward about two miles, the enemy were again encountered, but, 
owing to the lateness of the hour, the command went into camp. 

On the morning of the 5th the force started early, the 124th 
Ohio being left in the rear of the wagon-train, which was large. 
After marching about two miles our cavalry met the enemy's 
pickets and outposts, and severe skirmishing was kept up until 
the expedition came in sight of Thompson's Station, the enemy 
falling back. About half a mile from the station the railroad 
approaches the pike on the west side and runs parallel with 
the pike, between two high hills, for six hundred yards, when 
it bears off to the west on a plain about half a mile wide, — hills 
rising again on the south side of the plain, the station being 
about half-way between the two ridges. When the point where 
the railroad joins the pike was reached, the enemy opened fire 
with a heavy battery. 

Colonel Coburn at once formed his forces in line, ordered one 
section of the battery to take position on the hill on the left 
of the pike, and deployed the 19th Michigan and 22d Wisconsin 
to support it. The other three guns took position on the hill 
on the right, supported by the 33d and 85th Indiana. The 
enemy had two batteries on the range of hills three-quarters of 
a mile to the southward. The plain in front of our position 
was cultivated, and there were some six lines of rail-fence 
and one or two stone walls between us and the enemy, who 
showed no front. Colonel Coburn ordered the 33d and 85th 
Indiana to make a demonstration on the left of the enemy, to 
draw him out if in force, and if not to charge his battery. 
These two regiments marched out from the cover of the hills in 
columns of companies across the fields about six hundred yards, 
under a galling fire from the enemy's batteries, being all the 
while in plain view, having fences to tear down as they went, 
and wholly unable to return the fire by a single shot. 

Upon reaching the station our skirmishers soon unmasked 
the enemy, and found at the foot of the hill, posted behind 



BATTLE OF SPRING HILL. 42i 

stone walls, fences, and brush, two whole brigades of dismounted 
cavalry. Seeing that it was impossible to advance farther, the 
two regiments lay down and were covered by the buildings and 
fences. No disposition to advance or attack, however, was 
shown by the enemy. The incessant firing of their sharp- 
shooters, to pick off our officers, seemed to content them. In 
a few moments the regiments were ordered to retire to the hill 
from which they had started, and Colonel Jordan was directed 
to send two companies of cavalry to their support; but the latter 
order, for some reason, was not obeyed. No sooner had they 
left their shelter than two regiments from Arkansas and Texas 
started in fierce pursuit, firing rapid volleys of musketry into 
the retiring ranks. The rebel batteries, meanwhile, were play- 
ing upon them, and both regiments lost several in killed and 
wounded. All this time they had been unable to fire a shot; 
but as soon as they reached the hill they turned and drove 
back the enemy faster than they had come, killing Colonel 
Earle, of Arkansas. The rebels again rallied and charged, but 
were again driven back. It soon became evident that Colonel 
Coburn had encountered the whole of Van Dorn's and Forrest's 
forces. 

An advance was now made upon our left, where were sta- 
tioned the 19th Michigan and 22d Wisconsin. The latter at 
once opened fire upon the advancing enemy, and, the former 
coming to its support, the enemy was repulsed, and held in 
check for some twenty minutes. When the 22d Wisconsin was 
first attacked, that portion of the battery stationed on the left 
of the pike started rapidly up the road-, and, notwithstanding 
the efforts of a staff-officer to induce it to stop and assist in 
checking the enemy, then charging upon the 22d, continued its 
retreat. Foiled in his advance here, Forrest at once made a 
circuit with his whole force, beyond the ground occupied by our 
force to the east, with the intention to turn our left flank. 

Colonel Coburn now brought the 19th and 22d on the west 
side of the pike, and, leaving the 33d to protect the hill on its 
Bouth face, the 10th and 85th were formed, facing the enemy. 



422 ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND, 

east, at right angles, with the 22d in the rear of the 85th, except 
three companies, which, with Lieutenant-Colonel BloodgoodJ 
had without orders retired from the field when the 22d received 
the first charge, moving off by the left flank and joining the 
retreating cavalry and artillery. 

The four regiments had hardly formed in line, lying down 
behind the crest of the hill, when Armstrong's brigade charged 
from the east and the Texans from the south. The fighting was 
now terrific. Our fire was reserved until the enemy were within 
thirty paces. Three times they gallantly charged up the hill 
from the east, and thrice were they forced back. In one of their 
charges the 19th Michigan captured the colors of the 4th Missis- 
sippi and four prisoners, and the contending parties were so 
near each other that one man was shot by the soldiers of the 
85th from the window of a schoolhouse as he was trying to get 
in at the door. During this time one battery was throwing 
shells into our lines, and, having got possession of the hill on the 
east of the road, the enemy hurled grape and canister like hail 
The battle raged furiously. Still, it was a hopeless struggle. 
■ Defeat was only a question of time. The ammunition was fast 
giving out, and Forrest, having got between them and Franklin, 
was closing in from the north. But officers and soldiers did 
their duty. A new line was formed with all four of the regi 
ments, facing north, to meet the new foe, about three hundred 
yards farther to the west and about the same distance to the 
north. 

Here Forrest was met and held in check until the last round 
of ammunition was fired. The brave little force then fixed 
bayonets, to charge and break the enemy's lines and try to 
escape. But, just as they were about to charge, it was discovered 
that Forrest had still another line in reserve^ and a battery began 
to open and form a new j)Osition. Escape was hopeless; and, to 
» avoid useless sacrifice of life, the command surrendered. Colonel 
Coburn, during the trying engagement, was calm and collected, 
displaying great energy and bravery. He made the best fight 



SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION OF A DIVISION. 423 

uc could, and only yielded when further strife would have been 
madness. 

Of officers and men thirteen hundred and six were made 
prisoners, and were sent south. The 85th Indiana had three 
hundred men in the fight, and two hundred and twenty-nine were 
taken. The cavalry were not engaged, and, with the artillery, 
escaped with little, if any, loss. The enemy were all cavalry 
and mounted infantry, but all fought on foot, every fourth man 
holding four horses; and the force consisted of six brigades, 
under Major-General "Van Dorn, Brigadier-Generals French, 
Armstrong, Cosby, Martin, and Jackson. Infantry had no 
chance of escape after the fight once began. Somebody evi- 
dently blundered in the planning of the expedition, as Van 
Dorn's whole force had been at Spring Hill for three daj'S before 
Colonel Coburn left Franklin, and, not knowing that the brigade 
had left Brentwood, were preparing to attack Franklin, and 
had started the day before for that purpose. 



SUCCESSrUL EXPEDITION OP A DIVISION. 

While this battle was being fought. General Sheridan with his 
division, and Colonel Minty, with a force of eight hundred and 
sixty -three cavalry, were out on a ten-days scout. Colonel Minty 
drove the enemy out of Eover and Unionville, pursuing them to 
within five miles of Shelbyville, where the rebel infantry pickets 
were encountered. During this chase fifty-one prisoners, seven- 
teen wagons, forty-two mules, thirty-one tents, and two wagon- 
loads of bacon and meal were captured. Our only casualty was 
one man wounded. The colonel then fell back to Eagleville, 
taking the captured property'" with him, and was there joined by 
General Sheridan on the morning of the 5th. On the 6th he 
moved towards Triune, and on the 7th towards Unionville. Four 
miles beyond Eagleville he was ordered to return to Triune and 
proceed to Franklin. On the 8th he arrived at Franklin, and 



424 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

on the 9th inarched out on the Ciu'ter's Creek pike to form a 
junction with General G. C. Smith near Thompson's Station. 
Six miles out, the enemy were met and driven to within a 
mile and a half of Thompson's Station, where a force of seven 
hundred cavalry were found drawn up in line. Declining fight, 
however, they fled, closely pressed by the 4th United States 
Cavalry and a portion of the 7th Pennsylvania. At Thompson's 
Station the rebels were reinforced by Starns's regiment (the 
3d Tennessee); but, after a short and sharp skirmish, the whole 
brigade was driven from the field by two companies of the 4th 
Cavalry and about fifty men of the 7th Pennsylvania, with a loss 
of five killed and thirteen prisoners. Our loss was three killed 
and one wounded. Camping that night at Springfield, we ad- 
vanced the next daj', and found General Smith at llutherford's 
Creek, the bridges over which had been burned. The next day 
the creek was forded higher up, Forrest and five hundred men 
disputing the passage but being driven to the woods with loss. 
The enemy had now dismounted, and advanced in line with their 
battle-flag flying; but, perceiving that they were likely to be 
surrounded, they rapidly remounted and fell back. Pursuing 
them five miles towai'ds the Lewisburg pike, Colonel Minty then 
mar-ched towards the Columbia pike. Upon reaching Duck 
Eiver, it was found that Yan Dorn's whole force had ci'ossed 
during the day on a pontoon bridge and by the ferry-boat. 
Accordingly, on the next day, the 12th, the expedition began its 
return by way of Franklin and Triune, reaching Mui-frcesborough 
on the afternoon of the 14th, the whole loss during the ten days 
having been five killed and five wounded. 



THE BATTLE OF MILTOJT. 426 



THE EATTLE OF MILTON. 

On the 18th of March an expedition, consisting of the 105th 
Ohio, 80th and 123d Illinois, and lOlst Indiana, a section of the 
19th Indiana Battery, and Company A of the 1st Middle Ten- 
nessee Cavalry, — the whole amounting to a little over fourteen 
hundred men. — under the command of Colonel A. S. Hall, of the 
105th Ohio, left Murfreesborough in the direction of Liberty. 
The same night the command occupied Gainesville, cajituring 
two prisoners. The next morning an advance was made towards 
iStatesville, at which place a slight skirmish ensued. The enemy 
retired slowly down Smith's Fork on the pike, cautiously fol- 
lowed by Colonel Hall, until a regiment of cavalry, with those 
driven from Statesville, was found drawn up in line across the 
pike. Colonel Hall thereupon rested his forces for a couple of 
hours, which were occupied in reconnoissances. Becoming 
satisfied that the enemy greatly outnumbered him, he deter- 
mined to draw them as near 31urfreesborough as pos-sible, 
and, accordingly, camping that night at Auburn, seven miles 
from Liberty, the next morning took up a position near Milton, 
which place is twelve miles northeast of Murfreesborough. Here 
he made a stand, fought the enemy, commanded by General John 
H. Morgan, and completely routed them, entailing upon that 
rebel general the first thorough defeat he had met with. This 
engagement was fought on the 20th of March, and has since 
become famous as the battle of Milton. 

Colonel Hall had .scarcely taken position when the enemy's 
advance made its appearance about fifleen hundred yards away. 
Flankers were at once thrown out, and the section of Harris's 
battery was ordered to open fire upon the rebels, who were ap- 
proaching at a gallop. A few shells checked them; but the 
main body now came in sight, and, having dismounted, advanced 
on foot to the attack. Perceiving that the enemy outnumbered 
him almost two to one, Colonel Hall slowly fell back to the crest 



426 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

of tlie hill, whei'e his men would have the advantage of an 
admirable position, and could avoid at the same time the 
possibility of being surrounded and compelled to surrender, 
he, meanwhile, sending a messenger to Murfreesborough for 
cavalry reinforcements. 

The 80th Illinois was formed upon the right, the 123d Illinois 
in the centre, and the 101st Indiana on the left. The 105th 
Ohio was held in reserve as a support to the section of Harris's 
battery, which was ordered to fire upon each rebel line as it 
passed within range. The enemy now opened a fierce fire of 
shot and shell from their battery, and also advanced in strength 
on both our flanks. Morgan evidently hoped to be able to throw 
Colonel Harris's men into confusion while they were slowly 
retreating to the top of the hill, and made direct charges on 
his lines for that purpose. The nature of the ground aver 
which he was compelled to pass was such, however, that he 
could not keep beyond the range of Harris's artillery; and his 
heavy columns passing to the left were two or three times cut 
in two by its terrible fire. The 80th Illinois also poured in a 
destructive volley, and so checked the enemy's ardor that all 
the regiments were enabled to reach the position on the crest 
of the hill without delay and in good order. 

The enemy now advanced on the left in solid columns, making 
a vigorous onset upon the 101st Indiana and the left wing of the 
123d Illinois, but were driven back in confusion. A second time 
they made a still more powerful attack. Some little confusion 
was at first manifested in the ranks of the lOlst; but it was only 
for a moment, and the enemy were again driven back, with still 
heavier loss. Failing in his attempts on the left, he now moved 
in heavy force against the right, meanwhile opening a sharp fire 
upon the centre from four pieces of artillery. Here, too, he 
was driven back with terrible slaughter. The soldiers of the 
Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana regiments took deliberate aim, and 
at several places were forced to a hand-to-hand fight. They 
displayed the most invincible bravery. Our artillery was so 
handled as to do splendid execution. One of the euemy's field- 



THE BATTLE OF MILTON. 427 

pieces, a rifled six-pounder, was shivered to atoms while a shell 
killed the gunner belonging to another. 

Failing to accomplish any thing on our flanks, the enemy 
next made an attack on the rear; but there also he was met 
and repulsed from the commanding position occupied by our 
forces, in such a tremendous storm of shot that the guerrilla 
gangs were literally mowed down. Again and again the rebels 
persevered, but each time without success, until at length (it 
being two o'clock, and the fight having lasted three and a half 
hours) Morgan withdrew his command. 

He still continued his artillery-fire, however, and once, having 
received reinforcements, began a new and fierce attack, but ere 
long withdrew in confusion. At half-past four his artillery 
ceased firing, and the whole command left the field. He col- 
lected most of his wounded, except those within our rifle- 
range and those mortally injured, and carried them away with 
him. Four captains, two lieutenants, and fifty-seven men were, 
however, found upon the field, dead, or mortally wounded. Four 
surgeons were also left to care for the wounded, by whom Colo- 
nel Hall was informed that the wounded carried off the field 
amounted to about three hundred, including General Morgan, 
slightly wounded in the arm (his wound was afterwards found 
to be a more serious one). Colonel Grigsby, right arm broken, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Napier, thigh broken and amputated, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Martin, flesh-wound in the back, and many other 
officers of lower rank. Their total loss in killed and wounded 
could not have been less than four hundred. Ten prisoners, 
eight horses, and fifty-three stand of arms were captured and 
brought into camp. Colonel Hall's loss was six killed, forty- 
two wounded, and seven missing. 

The courier whom Colonel Hall had sent for reinforcements 
magnified the danger, representing' that he was surrounded and 
out of ammunition. Under these circumstances it was thought 
advisable to send Colonel Minty, with two brigades of cavalry, 
a brigade of infantry, and a battery, to the assistance of our 
beleaguered forces. Colonel Minty pushed on with all possible 



428 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

speed ; but when lie arrived at the scene of the fight, Morgan 
had left. It was ah'eady nearly dark; but Colonel Minty, 
thinking that perhaps the rebels had not gone far, advanced 
with his cavalry through the village and thoroughly recon- 
noitred the surrounding country. Not a rebel was in sight ; and 
our cavalry returned to the hill and bivouacked for the night. 
The next morning Colonel Minty despatched reconnoitring 
parties to Gainesville, Statesville, and Liberty, all of whom 
returned without having seen the enemy. 

The enemy's force was variously estimated at from three 
thousand five hundred to four thousand; but it was hardly so 
large. In his ofiicial report Colonel Minty estimates it at about 
two thousand two hundred and fifty, giving the number and 
names of the regiments coraj)Osing it. There were four regi- 
ments of cavalry, averaging about three hundred each, and 
three of mounted infantry, averaging about three hundred and 
fifty each. The enemy also had one twelve-pounder rifled cannon, 
one howitzer (both brass pieces), and two small mountain-how- 
itzers. Colonel Hall returned to Murfreesborough on the after- 
noon of the 21st, to receive the congratulations of the whole 
army for his gallant fight and his complete victory over the far- 
famed and not a little dreaded General Morijan. 



EXPEDITION or WILDEK'S BEIGADE. 

Expeditions were now more frequent, scarcely a day passing 
without the sending out or returning of one. The similarity of 
their movements and results renders separate mention useless. 
The most remarkable of them, however, have been made by 
Colonel John T. Wilder, of the 17th Indiana, commanding the 
1st Brigade of Mounted Eifles. As a specimen of one out of 
many, the following account is subjoined. 

On the evening of April 1, Colonel Wilder started with de- 
tachments of the following regiments, the 15th, 101st, and 123d 



EXPEDITION OF WILDER's BRIGADE. 429 

Illinois, on foot, commanded by Colonel Monroe, of the last- 
named regiment, and the 17th and 72d Indiana and the 98th 
Illinois, mounted, under Colonel Funkhouser. The brigade took 
with it four mountain-howitzers and four rifled Parrotts. 

The entire force proceeded north to the east fork of Stone 
Eiver, where it. encamped for the night. The next day, after 
proceeding north for some distance in the direction of Lebanon, 
while the foot kept the direct road, the mounted regiments 
struck oft' to the right, scouring the country in all directions, — 
the whole force concenti"ating at Lebanon and spending the 
second night there. By dift'erent routes Colonel Wilder then 
marched his forces towards the northeast, sending scouts north 
to the Cudaberland River on all the principal roads. While one 
part of the brigade marched on Eome, the other galloped into 
Cai'thage, taking possession of both these places at the same 
time. 

After resting and scouting in this vicinity for some time, the 
command again turned towards the south, in the direction of 
Alexandria, up Caney Fork and Smith's Fork, marching over 
hills and mountains where the people had never before seen a 
Federal soldier. Even artillery went rattling over by-roads where 
scarcely ever a wagon had gone before. Hearing that a body 
of Wharton's cavalry had returned to Liberty and Snow Hill, 
whence General Stanley had driven a similar force but a few 
days before. Colonel Wilder laid his plans to capture them. His 
plan was perfect, and its execution would have succeeded even 
beyond his expectations, but for a mistake in, a single road. 
Those ordered to take the rear wheeled to the right into the 
first cross-road, when they should have taken the second. This 
brought them into the main road of rebel retreat near the rear 
of their column, while the other would have placed them directly 
in Wharton's front. Still, several ofiicers and a number of 
prisoners were captured. The position held by Wharton's bat- 
talion was well chosen, and so strong that a hundred resolute 
men ought to have held it against a thousand ; but it was aban- 
doned without any show of resistance. 



430 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Many Union families were found entirely destitute, and many 
rebels with abundance. The goods of the latter were distri- 
buted among the former, and many hearts made glad. To one 
a dollar's worth of captured cotton yarn would be thrown ; to 
another a tired-out horse or mule would be given ; and so the 
expedition marched through the country, stripping the rebels 
and supplying several families that had lost their all for the 
sake of the Union. Able-bodied negroes who chose to accom- 
2)any the army were assured that they would find emj)loyment 
and protection in the Federal army, and large numbers accom- 
panied it on its return. 

The result of the expedition was as follows : — 

Five hundred head of good horses and mules; eight* thousand 
dollars' worth of tobacco and cigars, paid for by the Confede- 
racy only two days before ; four thousand dollars' worth of spun 
yarn; about eighty-six tons of hay and forage; four thousand 
bushels of corn ; a large quantity of flour and meal ; one hundred 
and four prisoners, including eight officers who were enforcing 
the rebel conscription; a rebel mail and mail-carrier, and one 
hundred and ninety-four able-bodied negroes. The expedition 
is recognized by all as one of the most brilliant and successful of 
the campaign, reflecting great credit upon the gallant officer in 
command. 

An expedition, under command of General Palmer, to Wood- 
bury, also proved very successful, resulting in the capture of 
sixty prisoners, one hundred horses and mules, a large quantity 
of hay and corn, and a considerable amount of cigars and 
tobacco. 



VAN DOEN'S ATTACK ON PEANKLIN. 

Early in April, Major-General Gordon Granger, commanding 
a portion of our army at Franklin, learned that an attack would 
be made upon that place about the 9th or 10th of the month, 
by a rebel force estimated at from fifteen thousand to eighteen 



VAN DORn's attack ON FRANKLIN, 431 

thousand, and commanded by Major-General Yan Dora. Gene- 
ral Granger's force consisted of Brigadier-Generals Baird's and 
Gilbert's divisions of infantry, fifteen hiindred and ninety-four 
men and sixteen guns, and Brigadier-General Smith's Cavalry 
Brigade, eleven hundred and twenty-eight men. To these were 
added a cavalry force of sixteen hundred men and two guns, 
under the command of Major-General Stanley. 

The only artificial defence was the fort, not yet completed, 
but which mounted two siege-guns and two three-inch rifled 
guns from the 18th Ohio Battery. Eising about forty feet 
above the general surface of the country around Franklin, it 
commands most of the approaches to the place north of the 
Harpeth, and all from the south save that part of the plateau 
covered by a few blocks of houses in the southeast part of 
the town. 

General Granger's camps were on the north side of the river, 
about two-thirds of a mile distant. The river is between thirty 
and forty feet wide, and about three feet deep, with bluff banks 
from six to ten feet high, and can easily be crossed at several 
fords either above or below Franklin. Thus the town is easy 
of approach from every direction. 

As the enemy was mounted and in large force, it was anti- 
cipated that he would not attack directly in front, but would 
seek to turn the flanks or gain the rear of General Granger's 
forces. Accordingly, General Baird was directed to hold in 
cneck any force attempting to cross the fords below the town. 
General Gilbert was placed in position to meet any attack in 
front or to reinforce either flank. General Stanley was stationed 
four miles out on the Murfreesborough road, to guard the ford 
at Hughes's Mill. General Granger's cavalry, under General 
G. C. Smith, was held in reserve to reinforce General Stanley, if 
necessary. 

The day was propitious for the attack, — dark and smoky. The 
wind, too, was high, and swept the dust from Franklin and the 
dry roads into the faces of our men, so that at the distance of a 
mile it was at times diflScult to distinguish a line of horsemen 



482 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

from a fence. The enemy advanced with great raj^idity, — Van 
Dorn on the Columbia pike, and Cosby on the Lewisburg pike, 
while Starns and Forrest were sent around to gain Granger's 
rear by a road crossing the Harpeth three miles east of the 
town, known as the Nichol Mill lioad. It was in anticipation 
of this movement that General Granger had placed General 
Stanley in the position he held. The first notice of Cosby's 
approach was the firing of our pickets, who were driven in 
about twelve o'clock, and fell back to the 40th Ohio, stationed 
on the south side of the town and there performing guard-duty. 

By this force the progress of the enemy was stayed for an 
hour or more ; but it was finally compelled to fall back for want 
of ammunition. The number of the enemy's dead and wounded, 
however, show that our men made a gallant fight against im- 
mensely superior numbers. In retiring they were followed into 
town by Major Jones's Mississippi cavalry, few of whom lived to 
return. 

It was now about two o'clock, and a large force could be seen 
forming near the railroad on the Lewisburg pike, while another 
large force was collected between the Columbia pike and the 
railroad, about a mile and a quarter from the fort. Our guns at 
once opened upon the rebels stationed in the open field, and in a 
short time compelled them hastily to retreat. The enemy then 
posted two rifled guns in the edge of the woods, between the 
railroad and Columbia pike, directing their fire at the fort and 
General Granger's head-quarters, but without inflicting any 
damage. A messenger from Brentwood stating that the enemy 
had driven in General Morgan's pickets at that point, General 
Granger now thought it possible that Van Dorn's real intention 
might be to occupy his time and attention by a feint on Frank- 
lin, and thus prevent any attack upon him, while he attacked 
and captured the small force at Brentwood. To foil such a move- 
ment, he ordered all the cavalry under General Smith to rein- 
force General Morgan at Brentwood. After they had gone, 
however, it was ascertained that a gang of negi-oes had at a 
distance been mistaken for a rebel force, thus causing the alarm. 



VAN corn's attack ON FRANKLIN. 438 

It was now evident that the real attack was to be upon his 
front; but it was too late to order the return of the cavalry 
force, which was to have supported General Stanley. To supply 
its place, two regiments of infantry, and two guns, from Gene- 
ral Gilbert's division, were ordered forward. 

Before they had moved, however, word was received from 
Stanley that he had crossed the river at Hughes's Ford, moved 
to the Lewisburg pike, and attacked the enemy in flank. It 
was here that Companies K and B of the 4th Cavalry dis- 
tinguished themselves by one of the finest charges of the war, 
capturing a full battery of six pieces and between two hundred 
and three hundred prisoners, besides killing a large number, 
including a captain and a lieutenant. The enemy were routedi 
at all points, with heavy loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, — 
the latter numbering between four hundred and five hundred. 
Upon receipt of this information, General Granger at once- 
ordered Stanley's reinforcements forward on the double-quick,. 
80 as to reach him before he was driven back. General Baird's 
division was also thrown across the river. These movements, 
however, were not quick enough. Yan Dorn, discovering his 
precarious situation, abandoned his attack on Granger's front, 
and, concentrating his forces against General Stanley, forced him. 
back, by the mere weight of overAvhelming numbers, before his 
reinforcements had time to reach him. The battery could not 
be taken off, and was abandoned, four of the guns having been 
spiked. Most of the prisoners were also recovered by the 
enemy, — the cavalry only succeeding in bringing away thirty- 
four, among whom were a captain and a lieutenant. 

Having thus extricated himself from a dangerous position,. 
Van Dorn seems to have been satisfied with the day's work; for' 
he immediately withdrew towards Spring Hill. His force was 
ascertained to have been nine thousand cavalry and mounted 
infantry, and two regiments of infantry. Their loss in killed,, 
wounded, and prisoners was about three hundred, of whom about 
eighty belonged to the latter class. The loss of Generals Stanley 
aud Granger was thirty-seven killed, Avounded, and missing. 

28 



48i ARMY OF THE CtMBEKLAND'. 



THE OAPTUEE OP MoMINNVILLE. 

On the 20th of April, Major-General J. J. Eeynolds, with his 
own division, Colonel Wilder'e Mounted Brigade, and seventeen 
hundred and eight cavalry under the command of Colonel 
Minty, left Murfreesborough for McMinnville, to capture or dis- 
perse any rebel force that might be at that place. The cavalry 
camped that night between Readyville and Woodbury. At two 
o'clock the next morning. Colonel Long, with the 2d Cavalry 
Brigade, four hundred and eighteen men, was ordered to take 
the road leading through Jacksborough, strike the railroad at or 
near Morrison's as soon after half-past ten a.m. as possible, and 
to destroy the trestle-work at that place. The Manchester train, 
it was hoped, would be intercepted; but it escaped, though the 
woi'k was well done, nevertheless. At three o'clock a.m.. Colo- 
nel Minty, with the remainder of his command, marched for 
McMinnville, and was followed by Colonel Wilder with his 
brigade. About two miles from McMinnville. the 4th Michigan 
iand one company of the Ist Middle Tennessee, with two of 
i,Colonel Wilder's mountain-howitzers, were detached and ordered 
to' move on the Smithville road, the main body moving along 
the old McMinnville I'oad. About half a mile farther on, the 
rebel pickets were encountered. Forming in line, they opened 
fire, but were charged and driven through the town. The 
entire iforee ithus dispersed was about seven hundred, — six hun- 
dred cavallry, and the provost-guard, consisting of one hundred 
and fifteen men of the 2d Kentucky and 41st Alabama Infantry. 
These latter had left town with the wagon-train, by the Chatta- 
nooga road, about an hour before Colonel Minty's arrival; but, 
■by pressing hard, a part of the 7th Pennsylvania succeeded in 
capturing three of the wagons and eight or nine of the men. 

The cavalr}^ scattered in every direction, part of them retreat- 
ing at a gallop on every road leading from the town, and about 
fifty taking the railroad-train which started as our forces entered 
the place. In the chai'ge made through the town by the ad- 



THE CAtTCRE DP McMINNVItLE. 435 

vance-guard, consisting of Lieutenant Thompson and twenty- 
five men of the 7th Pennsylvania, Corporal Street mortallj' 
wounded Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, of Johnson's Kentucky 
Cavalry, laying open his skull by a sabre-stroke. General John 
H. Morgan was riding by the side of Colonel Martin, and barely 
escaped capture by the fleetness of his horse. The famous 
Major Dick McCann was also wounded and captured, but effected 
his escape the same night from a guard of the 4th tJnited States 
Cavalry. Colonel Minty immediately sent the 3d Brigade and 
the 4th Michigan after the train which had just left, with orders 
to destroy it and also the new bridge over Hickory Ci-eek. The 
4th Regulars were sent to the support of the 7th Pennsylvania, 
on the Sparta and Chattanooga road. Colonel Minty then en- 
camped for the night on the hill west of McMinnville, and early 
the next morning Was rejoined by the 2d and 3d Brigades and 
the 4th Michigan. 

On the 22d he camped at Snow Hill, and on the 23d passed 
through Liberty and Alexandria, Wheeler's, Wharton's, Har- 
rison's, and Duke's brigades retreating before him. Camping 
three miles west of Alexandria, he remained there until the 
morning of the 25th, when he began his return, and, camping 
that night near Cainsville, reached Murfreesborough the next 
afternoon. The expedition resulted in the capture of one hun- 
dred and thirty prisoners (all but seven of whom were taken 
by the cavalry), the destruction of the trestle-work below 
Morrison's, the burning of the railroad-buildings, one loco- 
motive, and two cars at that place, the burning of the railroad- 
bridge across Hickory Creek and the capture there of a large 
amount of bacon and other commissary-stores, the recapture of 
fifteen of the 2d Bast and Ist Middle Tennessee Cavalry, and 
also the capture of thirty horses, twelve mules, and three 
wagons. A large amount of property and stores— including a 
cotton-factory and other Government-buildings— was destroyed 
at McMinnville by Colonel Wilder, — who also brought in a large 
number of horses and mules. All this was eflfected without a 
single casualty. 



436 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

On the 27^h of April, General Granger's escort — detachments 
of the 7th Kentucky Cavalry, Major Vemouth, 6th Kentucky, 
Colonel "Wickliff Cooper, and 6th Kentucky, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Eoper, — in all, about five hundred men, commanded by Colonel 
"Watkins, of the 6th Kentucky — made a brilliant dash upon a 
camp of rebels upon the Carter's Creek pike, eight miles from 
Franklin. Moving at two o'clock in the morning, they com- 
pletely surprised the rebels at daj^break, killing two, wounding 
ten, capturing one hundred and thirty-two privates and six 
officers, — three of them captains, and all of the 1st Texas Legion, 
About one hundred and fifty horses, one hundred mules, eight 
wagons, and an ambulance, were also among the trophies. 

A large camp, covering several acres, was completely broken 
up, and all the camp-equipage that could not be conveniently 
transported was destroyed. Only a mile distant was another 
and much lai'ger camp, before which Colonel Watkins drew up 
his men as though prei^aring to attack it. Under cover of this 
demonstration, he withdrew with his captures, reaching Franklin 
in safety. 



EXPEDITION TO NOETHEEN GEOEGIA. 

While the expedition to McMinnville was being consum- 
mated, still another was in progress, in another direction^ with 
a view to stir up the rebel enemy at their homes and to destroy 
their army-supplies and lines of communication. Colonel A. D. 
Streight, of the Slst Indiana Volunteers, was placed in com- 
mand of the 80th Illinois and portions of two Ohio regiments, 
which, with his own regiment, numbered about eighteen hun- 
dred men, with instructions to proceed to Northern Georgia 
and harass the enemy's rear in every possible manner. The 
expedition was successful in accomplishing a part of its pro- 
jected work, but was closely followed by superior rebel forces, 
and, after five days of constant fighting, was compelled to sur- 
render, its ammunition being exhausted and further resistance 



EXPEDITION TO NORTHERN GEORGIA. 437 

useless. Inasmuch as Colonel Streight and the commissioned 
officers of his command have been refused an exchange and are 
now confined in Southern prisons as common felons, we subjoin 
the instructions given to Colonel S., upon which the expedition 
was based. 

"Head-Quarters Department of the Cumberland, 

" Murfreesborough, April 8, 1863. 

Colonel A. D. Streight, 51st Indiana Volunteers. 

"By special field orders No. 94, Paragraph VIII., you have been assigned to 
the command of an independent provisional brigade for temporary purposes. 
After fitting out your command with equipments and supplies, as you have 
already been directed in the verbal instructions of the general commanding 
this department, you vrill proceed, by a route of which you will be advised by 
telegraph, to some good steamboat-landing on the Tennessee River, not far 
above Fort Henry, where you will embark your command and proceed up 
the river. At Hamburg you will communicate with Brigadier-General 
Dodge, who will probably have a messenger there awaiting your arrival. If 
it should then appear unsafe to move farther up the river, you will debark 
at Hamburg, and without delay join the force of General Dodge, which will 
then be en route for luka, Mississippi. If, however, it should be deemed 
safe, you will land at Eastport and form a junction with General Dodge. 
From that point you will then march in conjunction with him to menace 
Tuscumbia ; but you will not wait to join in the attack unless it should be 
necessary for the safety of General Dodge's command or your own, or unless 
some considerable advantage can be gained over the enemy without inter- 
fering with the general object of your expedition. After having marched 
long enough with General Dodge to create a general impression that you are 
a part of his expedition, you will push to the southward and reach Russel- 
ville or Moulton. From there your route will be governed by circumstances; 
but you will with all reasonable despatch push on to Western Georgia and 
cut the railroads which supply the rebel army by way of Chattanooga. To 
accomplish this is the chief object of your expedition; and you must not 
allow collateral or incidental schemes, even though promising great results, 
to delay you so as to endanger your return. Your quartermaster has been 
furnished with funds suSicient for the necessary expenses of your com- 
mand. You will draw your supplies and keep your command well mounted 
from the country through which you pass. For all property taken for the 
legitimate use of your command, you will make cash payments in full to 
men of undoubted loyalty ; give the usual conditional receipts to men whose 
loyalty is doubtful ; hut to rebels nothing. You are particularly commanded 
to restrain your command from pillage and marauding. You will destroy 
all depots of supplies for the rebel army, all manufactories of guns, ammu- 
nition, equipments, and clothing for their use, which you can without delay- 
ing you 80 as to endanger your return. That you may not be trammelled 



438 ARMY OF THE CUMBEKLAND. 

with minute instructions, nothing further will be ordered than this general 
outline of policy and operation. In intrusting this highly important and 
somewhat perilous expedition to your charge, the general commanding places 
great reliance upon your prudence, energy, and valor and the well-attested 
bravery and endurance of the officers and men in your command. Whenever 
it is possible and reasonably safe, send us word of your progress. You may 
return by way of Northern Alabama or Northern Georgia. Should you be 
surrounded by rebel forces and your retreat cut off, defend yourself as long 
as possible, and make the surrender of your command cost the enemy as 
many times your number as possible. A copy of the general order from the 
War Department in regard to paroling prisoners, together with the necessary 
blanks, are herewith furnished you. You are authorized to enlist all able- 
bodied men who desire to join the 'army of the Union.' You must return 
as soon as the main objects of your expedition are accomplished. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. A. Garfield, 
" Brigadier- General and Chief of Staff.** 



"additional by telegraph. 

"April 9, 1863. 
"The written instructions you have received are designed to cover the 
cases you allude to. It is not necessary that a manufactory be directly in 
the employ of the rebels to come under the rule there laid down. If it 
produces any considerable quantity of supplies which are likely to reach the 
rebel army, it is to be destroyed. Of course small mills, that can only sup- 
ply the necessaries of life to the inhabitants, should not be injured. Any 
considerable amount of supplies likely to reach the rebel army are to be 
destroyed. If you dress your soldiers in the costume of the enemy, they will 
be liable to be treated as spies: you should not do this without the consent 
of the men, after they have been fully advised of the possible consequences. 
" (Signed) J. A. Garfield, 

" Brigadier- General and Chief of Staff." 



Thus instructed, Colonel Streight moved with his command 
to near Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland Eiver, by steamers 
from Nashville, and thence marched across the neck of country 
to a point on the Tennessee River near Fort Henry, while the 
steamboats went down to the Ohio and came up the Tennessee 
River to meet him. While thus crossing, his men scouted 
through all that region for horses and mules, and soon the 
entire force of the expedition was mounted. Proceeding by 
steamers to Eastport, the force disembarked and marched up 



EXPEDITION TO NORTHERN GEORGIA. 439 

the country, effecting a junction with General Dodge's force, 
advancing upon Tuscumbia and defeating the rebel troops sta- 
tioned there, with considerable loss to the latter. Colonel 
Streight now pushed on to Northern Georgia, hoping to reach 
Rome and Atlanta, and there destroy the rebel stores, machine- 
shops, and magazines, render useless their railroads, and in 
every way to commit irreparable damage to the rebellion, if 
possible. The forces under General Dodge, meanwhile, turned 
off southward to make a sweeping raid into rebel territory in 
North Alabama and return to their head-quarters at Corinth. 

Colonel Streight was hardly under way when information of 
his movements reached Forrest's and Eoddy's cavalry, which 
were then within striking-distance, as it happened. They 
moved on rapidly and, by pushing across the country, came in 
upon the rear of the Federals ; and then commenced a running 
fight of four days' continuance, during which there occurred 
two severe battles and several spirited skirmishes, resulting in 
considerable loss of life, — mainly on the part of the rebels, who 
rushed into well-laid ambushes and were several times signally 
repulsed- Upon one such occasion they lost two cannon, which 
our forces took along with them and used with effect until the 
ammunition was expended, when they were spiked and left 
behind. Thus, for a distance of over one hundred miles, our 
gallant troops marched towards the heart of the rebellion, doing 
immense damage as they progressed, by destroying bridges, 
large supplies of corn that had been collected for rebel army- 
use, burning a large foundry where cannon and shot were being 
cast for the Southerners, and stripping the country of what- 
ever animals were needed for the expedition. Aside from this, 
strict discipline was maintained, private property was respected, 
and the people along the route were not needlessly harassed. 
At length the rebel force in the rear became augmented to over- 
whelming numbers, and, his ammunition being expended and 
his men thoroughly exhausted. Colonel Streight surrendered his 
command, at a point fifteen miles from Eome, Georgia. His 
men, about thirteen hundred in number, were paroled and sent 



440 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

to Virginia, where they were exchanged some two months after 
their capture. He and his officers were retained and closely 
imprisoned, upon the demand of the Governor of the State 
of Georgia, Avho claimed them as prisoners of state (felons), 
alleging that they had incurred the penalty fixed by a statute 
of that State for inciting slaves to rebellion. The charge was 
made that, at the time of the surrender, negroes were found 
with Streight's command, uniformed and bearing arms. Our 
returned privates, however, deny the charge, — stating that but 
very few — not more than five or six — negroes were with the 
command, that those persons started with them from Nashville 
as servants, &c., that they refused to permit negroes to accom- 
pany or follow them during the march, and that at the time of 
the surrender only one of these negroes could be said to be 
armed, and he was carrying his master's (or employer's) sword, 
as a servant. 

So stands this matter at the present time of writing. For 
this unjust detention and imprisonment our Government has 
retaliated by refusing to pai'ole or exchange rebel officers, and 
hundreds of the latter have since accumulated and are now pining 
in Northern prisons. In consequence of his detention, no official 
report of Colonel Streight's expedition has been madej and the 
author has gleaned the foregoing account from various sources, 
and in the detail it may not be strictly accurate. The following 
letter from Colonel Streight, addressed to Brigadier-General 
Garfield, Chief of Staff", from his cell in the Libby Prison, Eich- 
mond, Virginia, is all the official light as yet aff'orded us respect- 
ing this expedition : — 

"KiCHMOND, Va., May 24, 1863. 

"General: — I hope this may reach you; but whether the bearer of it 
(Captain Brown, formerly of the gunboat Indianola) will be able to get it 
through, I am unable to say. 

" Though painful in the extreme, I am under the necessity of announcing 
to you that after four days and nights of almost incessant fighting, — the 
enemy being fully four thousand strong, commanded by General Forrest, — 
we were compelled to surrender for want of ammunition. Our loss in the 
several engagements, in killed and wounded, does not amount to more than 
one hundred. I regret to say that Colonel Hathaway is among the kilkd; 



ADVANCE UPON TULLAHOMA. 441 

he fell, mortally -wounded, on the evening of the third day, and expired in a 
few moments. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded — according to 
actual count on some of the principal battle-grounds, together with the 
most positive information obtained through one of my surgeons, who waa 
left in charge of our wounded — will amount to not less than five hundred in 
killed and wounded ; among the latter is Captain Forrest (brother of 
General Forrest), mortally. I am proud to say that the whole command — 
both officers and men — acted nobly and gallantly, — drove the enemy from 
the field in each and every engagement. I will be glad to give you all the 
particulars when I have more confidence that they will reach you. We (the 
officers of my command) are now confined in the celebrated Libby Prison, 
and hope you will exercise your influence and judgment in getting us 
released as soon as possible, as our condition is any thing but pleasant. I 
had forgotten to say to you that we captured in the first engagement two pieces 
of artillery, which we used to good advantage until the ammunition was 
expended, when they were spiked, the carriages destroyed and abandoned. 
I had also forgotten to mention that a portion of our ammunition had become 
damaged, which rendered our further resistance impossible at an unexpected 
time. 

" Truly, your friend, 

" A. D. Streight. 
" To Brig.-Gen. J. A. Garfield." 



ADVANCE UPON TULLAHOMA * 

Upon the 23d of June, General Eosecrans issued orders for an 
advance in force upon the enemy the following morning at day- 
break. His plan of operations was to create the impression of a 
main advance upon the enemy's left and centre by feint move- 
ments and demonstrations on our right with the lesser part of 
the army, in the direction of Shelbyville, while the decisive blow 
of the campaign was to be struck by rapidly marching with the 
principal body upon the enemy's right, turning or pushing it 
out of the way, and thence moving quickly, via Manchester, 

* From this point the operations of the army are given by the author as gathered 
from verbal and unofficial reports, and may not be entirely accurate. Also, portions 
(f our forces may not be mentioned as they merit. The author hopes for indulgence 
from the army, should this prove to be the case. The "Annals" were nearly ready 
for publication, and to wait for the oflBcial reports would have occasioned material 
detay. 



442 ARMY OF TIIK CUMBERLAND. 

upon Tullahoma, seizing the enemy's base at and lines of 
retreat and communication from that point, and thus forcing 
them to fight on our own terms, or surrender or scatter. To 
General McCook's corps the part of making the first advance 
from our right was assigned. 

The three divisions of the 20th Corps were under arms before 
sunrise on the 24th. Owing to the delay in receiving marching- 
orders, General Sheridan's, which was to have the advance, did 
not get under way on the Shelbyville road until about seven a.m. 
It marched over that road, preceded by five companies of the 
o9th Indiana Mounted Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Jones, 
until it came in sight of the enemy's outposts, when it halted 
and bivouacked, according to orders, in the woods on each side 
of the road, paying no attention to the desultory musketry and 
artillery fire the rebels opened upon it at intervals. Johnson's 
and Davis's divisions turned to the left when six miles out, as 
ordered, and took the road to Liberty Gap. 

Up to the morning of the 24th, there had been a long term of 
fine, cool, clear weather. The roads were dry without being 
dusty; but the very hour the troops marched out of their can- 
tonments rain commenced falling, as was the case also in De- 
cember last, when the army moved out from Nashville upon 
Murfreesborough. 

Before daybreak on the 24th, Colonel Wilder's mounted in- 
fantry struck tents, and were soon in motion along the pike 
leading to Manchester. General Reynolds, with the remainder 
of his division, followed. Later in the day, Generals Negley and 
Rousseau left camp in the same direction. Colonel Wilder was 
directed to move forward to within a few miles of HooVer's 
Gap, rest until the infantry should come up, and then to carry 
the works. Nine miles from Murfreesborough the advance- 
guard came upon the enemy's pickets. Two companies were 
deployed as skirmishers, and the column moved forward, driving 
the enemy before it. From the citizens and prisoners Colonel 
Wilder learned that the works commanding the gap, and care- 
fully constructed under the supervision of Bushrdd Johnson, 



ADVANCE UPON TULLAHOMA. 443 

were not occupied at present ; and he determined to move 
forward and take possession before the knowledge of our move- 
ment could reach the enemy and enable him to move into the 
fortifications, which he successfully accomplished, driving back 
the rebel outposts and skirmishers and taking several prisoners. 
This gap afforded strong defensive points at its entrance; but 
so sudden was our appearance that the enemy made but little 
resistance. Learning that the farther extremity of the gap 
offered opportunity for serious resistance to our advance. 
Colonel Wilder resolved to hurry forward and take position on 
the hill that commanded the road and the enemy's camp. The 
vanguard dashed forward and captured a train of nine wagons 
on the way to the rebel camp, a drove of fine beef-cattle, and 
twelve or fifteen prisoners. The long roll was heard in the 
enemy's camp soon after his arrival, and he immediately dis- 
posed his troops for battle. Captain Lilley, with his 18th In- 
diana Battery, hurried forward and took position on a cleared 
eminence used for pasturing-purposes, while the 123d Illinois, 
Colonel Monroe, moved up to its support. A howitzer was 
planted on a less commanding eminence near the creek, and the 
72d Indiana formed in line of battle near it. Colonel Jordan, 
with the 17th Indiana, took position, while Colonel Funkhouser, 
with the 98th Illinois, formed some distance to the right, but 
on the same ridge. Soon after, the thunders of the artillery 
announced the opening of the battle, and the replies of the 
rebel gunners indicated a readiness to engage. Five regiments 
of rebel infantry rose from the low ground near the stream, and, 
cheering like men confident of easy victory and disposed to 
inspire terror in their antagonists, came charging across the 
rolling but open field towards the 17th. The enemy approached 
within range, and received a volley from the 17th, that checked 
but did not stay them. Supposing our guns exhausted, a cheer 
followed the report, and they moved on. Again Wilder's ex- 
haustless weapons — the Spencer Eifles (twelve-shooters) — pour 
in their rain of 'bullets, and still the enemy press on. The 
rebels were nearing the line in largely superior force, and the 



444 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

colonel looked anxiously for assistance. The bayonet might 
prolong the struggle, but ultimate capture seemed inevitable. 
Not a man left the line. Comrades were falling raj)idly; but 
threatening disaster only nerved the men to greater exertion, 
and they still bravely poured in their fire. Just as hope was 
giving way, successive volleys on the right announced the 
arrival of reinforcements. The enemy faltered, staggered back, 
and, as if hurried to a decision by a united fire of the 98th and 
17th, turned their backs and fled, leaving a large portion of their 
dead and wounded on the field. The right of their line charged 
our batteries ; but the 123d Illinois, rising from its cover, charged 
over the crest, poured in a few well-directed volleys, and the day 
was won. The importance of this victory was evinced by the 
remark of the general commanding. He is reported to have said, 
after examining the formidable position, " Wilder has saved us 
thousands of men." The loss of the command, in the two hours' 
fighting, was sixty-three killed and wounded. Deserters from 
the enemy and prisoners captured gave their loss at over five 
hundred killed and wounded ; and among the former was Major 
Claybrook, of one of the Tennessee regiments engaged. The 
rebel forces engaged were Liddell's, "Wharton's, and Bates's 
brigades, numbering fifteen regiments. 

During this time brilliant work was being done at Liberty 
Gap, through which the command of Major-General McCook 
was to pass in advancing upon Cleborne's division of the rebel 
army. Since the battle of Stone Eiver, General McCook's troops 
had longed for another trial of valor with the enemy. At 
Liberty Gap it came to them at last, and most handsomely did 
they improve it. Colonel Harrison, in the advance, with one 
battalion of the 39th Indiana Mounted Infantry, discovered a 
force of about eight hundred rebel infantry, about one o'clock 
P.M., when within a short distance of the entrance of the gap. 
After dismounting part of his men and deploying them as skir- 
mishers, he reported the fact to General Johnson, who directed 
General Willich, whose brigade led the column, to drive the 
enemy. General Willich at once halted his brigade and made 



ADVANCE UPON TULLAHOMA. 445 

the necessary dispositions. He then ordered the entire lino- 
forward. It pushed on, under a heavj'^ fire, through the oj)en 
fields, with loud cheers, and, with its flanks outreaching and 
turning those of the enemy, had soon gained the hills and 
driven the rebels into precipitate flight, capturing their tents, 
baggage, and supplies. 

General Johnson now ordered General Willich to rally and 
rest his brigade, and Colonel Baldwin's to take the lead and clear 
the upper end of the gap from the enemy. Advancing as 
rapidly as the narrow valley permitted. Colonel Baldwin soon 
found the enemy in force, afterwards ascertained from prisoners 
to have consisted of an entire brigade of infantry and a battery 
of artillery, in a strong position on each side of the road. 
Placing the Louisville Legion (5th Kentucky) on the right and 
the 6th Indiana on the left of the road, with skirmishers in 
front and the 1st and 93d Ohio as reserves, and directing a 
section of the 5th Ohio Battery, under Lieutenant Ellison, to 
engage the rebel artillery, he moved to the attack under a 
severe fii-e, and, after a short but sharp combat, drove the enemy 
in gallant style from and occupied their position. 

On the following day General Johnson, in obedience to in- 
structions, kept up the delusion of the enemy as to our real 
intentions, by holding the position his command had won the 
night before. In the forenoon Willich's brigade was ordered to 
picket the front. Its pickets kept up a brisk exchange of shots 
with those of the enemy. Towards noon they commenced 
feeling us by repeatedly advancing within range with skir- 
mishers, supported by cavalry. They were driven back as 
often as they advanced. 'At two p.m. they repeated their at- 
tempt with a reinforced front of skirmishers, but again failed. 
Between three and four o'clock they came to a formal attack' 
in line of battle. Simultaneously they posted a section of artil- 
lery in front of our left, and another beai'ing upon our centre, 
but still did not succeed in forcing back our picket-lines, w^hich, 
after being strengthened by the support-eomj^anies, counter- 
charged, and drove the enemy several miles. At about three 



448 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

o'clock the anamunition of the 32d Indiana and 89th Illinois 
giving out, General Willich ordered the 15th Ohio to advance 
in support into the front line. The men of the 15th divided 
their ammunition with those of the 32d and the 89th, and the 
three regiments thus kept the enemy in check. 

Soon after, General Willich ordered the 49th Ohio behind the 
centre of the line, and placed Goodspeed's battery upon a hill, 
somewhat in the rear, where it opened a vigorous and effective 
fire upon the enemy's artillery, and some houses sheltering rebel 
infantry, on the opposite heights. At about the same time 
General Willich sent word to General Johnson that the fight 
was becoming serious. 

Between five and six p.m., the ammunition of the 15th Ohio, 
32d Indiana, and 89th Illinois being about exhausted, General 
Willich ordered the 49th Ohio to charge. Upon returning from 
captivity. General Willich had introduced into his brigade a new 
form of attack by skirmishers. This the 49th now executed for 
the first time in action, tlpon the oi'dor to move forward, the 
regiment advanced in steady line, cheered by the remainder of 
the brigade and joined by the men of the other regiments still 
provided with a few cartridges, through the open woods, towards 
the cornfields forming the valley across which the enemy had 
been operating. Having arrived within close range, Colonel 
Gibson gave the order, " Advance, firing." The regiment formed 
in four ranks. The first rank delivered a volley, next the fourth 
advanced to the front and fired, and then the second and third, 
in succession. At the second volley the advancing enemy 
wavered ; at the third and fourth they broke and ran. 

General Johnson, in the absence of General Davis in conse* 
quence of illness, had ordered General Carlin's brigade of the 
Ist Division, which had gone up the gap during the engagement, 
to the support of the 2d Brigade. Advancing across the valley 
with a dash, it came up on the right of the latter, after losing 
fVom twenty-five to thirty men. General Davis, having left his 
sick-bed upon the first sound of battle, arrived in front just in 
time to see the first charge of his men. . Shortly after the ap- 



ADVANCE UPON TtLLAHOMA. 447 

pearance of Carlin's brigade, the enemy abandoned the contest. 
The orders of our generals being only to check but not to attack 
them, the fight ceased. In the earlier days of the war these 
two atfairs at Liberty Gap would have commanded the public 
attention to a full extent. But, amidst the contemporaneous 
struggles of mightier numbers for more important issues in other 
parts of the country, they will pass as of minor importance. 
We sum up the result of these movements as follows : — 

Wilder's mounted infantry defeated a superior infantry force 
at Hoover's Gap on the 24th, and on the same day Willich'a 
brigade of McCook's corjjs drove two regiments from a strong 
position at Liberty Gap. The next day "Willich's, Wilder's, and 
Carter's brigades completely routed a rebel division under 
General Cleborne, who is said to have fallen in the action. The 
Union los^ was forty killed and one hundred wounded. 

These gaps were the key of the position, and their loss to the 
enemy at once determined him to retreat; for as soon as Gene- 
ral Rosecrans advanced, through them, to Manchester and Win- 
chester, he flanked Bragg, at Tullahoma; and the latter, with 
Vicksburg and Port Hudson fresh in liis memory, hastily eva- 
cuated. Upon ascertaining this fact, on the 1st day of July 
General Eosecrans threw forward his force in rapid pursuit, 
Thomas moving on the Manchester road from Manchester, and 
McCook on the one from Tullahoma. Thomas moved rapidly 
in hopes of striking the enemy, moving nearly due east, to get 
on the military road built by Bragg, parallel with and five miles 
east of the railroad. This General Thomas failed to do until the 
enemy was well beyond the angle and when he was crossing 
Elk River. The division of General Negley encountered the 
rear of Hardee at a point about four miles north of Elk Eiver, 
and skirmished with it all day, losing four or five men killed 
and wounded. The enemy's rear-guard, under Wheeler, made 
a stubborn resistance, delaying Negley so that the rebel trains 
got beyond the river. During the night, by great exertions, 
Bragg escaped with his reserve of artillery — twenty-six pieces* 
— across Elk River, at Estelle Springs, and reached Tin Moun 



448 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

tains. The enemy, on both roads, burned the bridges, and the 
rear-guard tooli up positions in hastily-built works on the oppo- 
site side of the river. It was readily understood that this was 
to delay our crossing as long as possible, in order to enable the 
infantry and trains to get into the mountains. To aid them in 
this, heavy rains came up, and the river rose very high. 

General Crittenden, with a full corps, was sent by a rapid 
march to take possession of the road leading from Dechard, via 
Tracy City, to Chattanooga. This was successful, and forced 
the enemy to take roads across the mountains. 

On the morning of the 2d, General McCook crossed at the 
mouth of Eock Creek, below the enemy's position in front of 
our right, and thus flanked the road to Winchester and the 
mountains. At the upper bridge, where IS'egley was, a similar 
manoeuvre was made, with still better success. Eousseau and 
Brannan were sent to the upper crossing to come down on the 
rear of the enemy, whom Negley was to detain, — not to drive. 
It was thought that Rousseau could cross by ten o'clock; but the 
swollen state of the river prevented, and only a few troops got 
across in time. In the mean time a cavalry brigade came in 
upon the right flank of the enemy. Their firing was mistaken 
for that of Eousseau, and Negley opened with two batteries on 
the rebel position, one thousand yards distant. The first fire 
dismounted one gun and killed several of the rebel gunners. 
They were taken comj)letely by surprise, and made but few 
replies, retreating precipitately to the mountains. General 
Turchin had engaged the rebel right, and after a fight of two 
hours drove it and the entire rebel force from the field, killing 
thirty-five of them. The fight only commenced at two p.m., and 
the troops were unable to cross until the morning of the 3d. 
They moved only a short distance, Negley encamping on the 
battle-field, and Eousseau and Brannan on the bank of the river. 
McCook in the mean time advanced, and occupied Winchester, 
Dechard, and Cowan. On the morning of July 4, our whole 
force advanced to the foot of the mountains at Cowan, to find 



ADVANCE UPON TULLAHOMA. 449 

the enemy gone, in full retreat upon Chattanooga and the 
Georgia border. 

Meanwhile Generals Stanley and Granger marched on and 
took possession of Shelbyville, meeting with vigorous opposition 
from retii"ing rebel skirmishers, and are reported ^s having 
captured several pieces of cannon and some six hundred 
prisoners, — among them a colonel and forty other officers. The 
Union citizens of Shelbyville greeted our troojDS with waving 
of flags and expressions of delight. From thence General 
Stanley has penetrated to Huntsville, Alabama; and we now 
hold that entire section of country. 

Bragg's retreat from Tennessee has demoralized his army, 
and discouraged the rebel peoj)le of that section. When the 
order was given to his troops to relinquish the fortifications ana 
retreat in the direction of the Tennessee Eiver, the disaffection 
that had existed among the Tennesseeans broke out in open 
denunciation and unreserved expressions of determination to 
abandon the cause and return to their homes. General Cheat- 
ham's division of Tennessee troops is said to have dissolved, 
and the flying fragments are making their way through the 
mountains to the Federal lines. Sixty deserters came into Tul- 
lahoma in one day and took the oath of allegiance. A colonel 
of a Tennessee regiment, on announcing the order to retreat, 
boldly avowed his intention of quitting the rebel service, and 
advised his men to escape to the mountains and make their 
way home. 

"We here close our record of the operations of the Army of 
the Cumberland. It has saved Kentucky and recovered Ten- 
nessee — two of the most valuable of the Southern States — to 
the Union fold. Its operations have been uniformly successful, 
and it has fought one of the greatest battles of modern times. 
As we close, the note of busy preparation is heard upon every 
hand for an advance beyond the Tennessee Eiver, to free the 
crushed Union men and to overwhelm the rebel traitors of the 
Gulf States. 

TuLLAHOMA, Tennessee, August 1, 1863. 

29 



ADDITION TO FOURTH EDITION. 



A BEIEP REVIEW OF THE LAST ADVANCE. 

The fourth edition of tliis volume being required by the public 
demand, the author makes some material additions, which, he 
believes, will render the work still more valuable to the Army 
of the Cumberland and to the friends of Major-General Eose- 
crans. Since the issuing of our previous editions, avast army 
movement has been undertaken and concluded, and a terrific 
battle has been fought, resulting in the displacement of the 
enemy and the occupancy, by the Union forces, of another of the 
strongholds of the rebellion. 

"With this there has also been a change of commanders of 
our army ; and hence we deem it especially appropriate to add to 
this record a brief account of the moving of General Eosecrans's 
forces across the Tennessee Eiver, the flank movement upon 
Bragg, the battle of Chickamauga, the successful occupancy of 
Chattanooga (the gx-and object for which the battle was fought), 
and the construction of the defences of that place, with a few 
remarks on the relieving of the commander of the Army of the 
Cumberland and on the general situation. This addition, it is 
hoped, will render the "Annals" still more acceptable, as a com- 
plete history of the operations of the Army of the Cumberland 
under Major-General William S. Eosecrans. 

Before proceeding with our narrative of the direct advance of 
the army upon Chattanooga, it will be well to take a retrospec- 
tive glance. The advance of the army from Murfreesborougb 
was planned by General Eosecrans with one grand purpose in 
view, — THE POSSESSION OF Chattanooga The rebel army was 

451 



452 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

then intrenched at Tullahoma and Shelbyville, and there a 
momentary delay was anticipated ; but the nook in the bend of 
the Tennessee Eiver, walled up by grand old mountains upon 
every hand, was the object aimed at. The accomplishment of 
this purpose, however, was a matter of extraordinary difficulty. 
The rebels held the line of railroad, and, if compelled to retreat, 
would unquestionably destroy it as much as possible to prevent 
pursuit. The wagon-roads leading in that direction were rude 
and rough in the extreme, over continuous hill, valley, ana 
mountain, passing through the entire Cumberland range, and 
preparations must be made at Murfreesborough to move the 
army through the wilderness, across mountains, and over rivers, 
by the ordinary modes of land-conveyance. The utmost that 
could be hoped from the railroad was that if repaired in time it 
would serve to bring on supplies in the rear of the army. The 
preparation for such a movement involved the collection of a 
vast number of horses, mules, wagons, compact army stores, the 
thorough equipment and clothing of the men, and the thousand 
minor arrangements always to be made ere marching a great 
army xipon an interior summer campaign. Here was one cause 
of the long stay of our arm}' at Murfreesborough, — our friends 
at home becoming in the interim most restive at the dcday. 

A second reason was, the great lack of cavahy. This defect 
Avas fully demonstrated at the battle of Stone Eiver, where the 
largely superior numbers of the rebel cavalry enabled them to 
come upon our rear and make the complete circuit of our army, 
destroying our supply-trains with impunity. General Eosecrans 
at once set about remedying this want; and the eff'orts he made 
to secure animals, by purchase, by inland expeditions of im- 
pressment, and even by the wholesale "pressing" of horses at 
Nashville and vicinity, are described elsewhere in this volume. 
By such tedious means the four regiments constituting "Wilder's 
brigade of infantry were mounted. While this siTpply of horses 
were being procured, a goodly share of them, purchased for 
our army at Louisville, were necessarily taken at that city to 
mount General Burnside's forces in their exijedition to the 



REVIEW OF THE LAST ADVANCE. 453 

Cumberland Gap, and also to go in pursuit of the rebel General 
John Morgan, who was then passing through Kentucky and 
Indiana on his last and most notable raid. The want of cavalry 
was finally remedied, to a limited extent, after much procrasti- 
nation and difficulty, that arm of the service being brought up 
to about six thousand eflPectively mounted men, — a force which 
was deemed sufficient to protect the immense trains of the army 
and to do scouting and pioneer service upon the march South. 

Another, and a very potent, reason, weighed in the minds of 
the general and corps commanders of our army. The siege of 
Vicksburg was progressing, and to advance was not deemed 
politic, — since if Bragg were di'iven from the valley of the Ten- 
nessee, the probability was that he would retire to Chattanooga, 
and, leaving a small force there behind intrenchments, would 
sen^ the bulk of his army to operate with Johnston against the 
forces of General Grant. This view was taken by all the officers 
of the army, and was at length adopted by the people of the 
country. The result proved — many idle reports at that time 
to the contrary — that Bi-agg's army lay quiet at Shelbyville 
and Tullahoma, and thereabout, intact; only Breckinridge, and 
a small portion of the uneasy element of the rebel army, leav- 
ing: it in that direction. The defensive works at both of these 
placeis were of the most formidable character. The rebels had 
been industrious, and, aided by the labor of some three thousand 
slaves sent up mainly from Georgia and Alabama, intrenchments 
were thrown up, earth forts, &c., quite surpassing the famed 
rebel works at Corinth, Miss., which for several weeks held of 
bay a Union army of one hundred and twenty thousand men. 
At Shelbyville these rebel works extended over a circuit of five 
miles. 

It must also be remembered that the co-operation of the forces 
of General Burnside was expected in the advance movement, he 
penetrating into East Tennessee, — which was eventually and 
successfully done. But further delay inevitably arose from this 
source, although commendable despatch was exhibited on the 
part of that auxiliary command. 



454 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

At length, when the above-mentioned preparations had been 
made, and when General Eoseerans was fully satisfied that the 
investment of Vicksburg was complete and must result suc- 
cessfully, he ordered the advance from Murfreesborough, as 
stated in a preceding page, on the 24th of June. Even then 
the means for a forward movement were not such as could have 
been desired, and many doubts troubled the minds of the old 
campaigners of the army, the most of whom had participaved 
in the advance to the Tennessee Eiver, under Buell, the year 
before. They well knew the rugged character of the country, 
and the long and unprotected rear line through a destitute and 
hostile region. It is a fact worthy of mention, that the corps 
and division generals of our army were by no means enthu- 
siastic as to the position on their front. When requested by 
General Eoseerans to advise with him upon this matter of an 
immediate advance, the unanimous opinion, in writing, of those 
seventeen generals, was that an advance at that time was inex- 
pedient. General Eoseerans, however, deemed it best to advance, 
and the army was soon put in motion. Some time before this, 
the War Department had issued to the commander-in-chief 
strenuous appeals and orders to advance. General Eoseerans 
asked in return if such orders were peremptory, stating that if 
so, he would tender his resignation rather than encounter the 
fearful consequences. The orders were decided to be merely 
advisory ; and the general assured the War Department that 
preparation was going on in all possible haste, and that the fall 
of Vicksburg he hoped was nearly a certainty. 

The author advances the opinion, for which he is alone respon- 
sible, that short and ill-tempered orders from the War Depart- 
ment, over the telegraphic wires, upon this matter, developed 
a feeling of contentious opposition, if not of unjust action, on the 
part, of the Secretary of War and his advisers at Washington, 
continually manifest since that time, and which has recently 
cropped out in a remarkable manner. That Eoseerans and 
Thomas, and the entire corps of generals of the army, were cor- 
rect in their views, has been conclusively proven by results. 



REVIEW OF THE LAST ADVANCE. 455 

The cavalry, that hitherto lame-leg of the army, was now able 
to cope with the rebel horsemen, especially since the loss to the 
latter of John Morgan's command. Teams and supplies were 
selected and compacted which carried our army over two 
hundred miles of difficult land-travel, and enabled it to wage a 
two days' battle, and to successfully enter and retain Chatta- 
nooga. Bragg's army was prevented from marching to the relief 
of Vicksburg, — although the country was assured by divers 
alarming reports that it had been divided, and even decimated, 
for that purpose, leaving a mere shell of Quaker camp-equipage 
and cannon to oppose to the Army of the Cumberland. That 
bubble was speedily pricked. Let it be borne in mind that the 
generals who thus confronted the mandates of the War Depart- 
ment are now in command of the Army of the Cumberland, and 
most deservedly enjoy the confidence of the army and of the 
nation. 

The advance of our army upon Tullahoma by flank movement, 
— the rushing into mountain-gaps, driving back, by gallant 
charges and sharp hand-to-hand encounters, the rebel forces 
stationed there, — the astonishment of Bragg at finding our 
forces marching past him and threatening his rear and rail- 
road, — his sudden flight, abandoning all his works, forts, and 
vaunted military resources of surrounding produce and forage, 
— his hasty retreat to the Tennessee Eiver, followed so closely 
by our forces that he must needs fight the while, and had no 
time to injure the railroad, further than to destroy nearly 
every bridge upon it, — the swoop of our gallant troops across 
the Cumberland Mountains in pursuit, treading upon the enemy 
so closely that he failed in completely destroying the great bridge 
over the Tennessee, several of the extensive spans midway 
being saved, — all this is history, and is in great part narrated 
in the preceding pages. The series of marches from Murfrees- 
borough to the Tennessee Elver, and the attending brilliant 
successes, have no parallel in the history of this war. An 
army of at least forty thousand men were forced from their 
fortified works by flank approaches, through mountain-passes 



456 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

which the rebels deemed they had sufficiently guarded, after 
most vigorous and galling charges ! But this great victory, 
achieved by strategy, rapidly and gallantly executed, excited 
little comment, — and very naturally. Vicksburg had recently 
fallen, and the nation was aglow. The smaller success was 
enveloped by, or rather was incorporated into, the greater. 
Had the Army of the Cumberland stormed the ramparts of 
TuUahoma, spiked its seventy pieces of cannon, and driven back 
its rebel defenders at the cost of ten thousand men, the victory 
would have been chronicled in story and in song. Eut to win 
victory at the least cost has ever been the study of General 
Eosecrans. 

Although successful in this movement upon the enemy at 
Tullahoma, a keen sense of disappointment was experienced in 
this regard. Our generals had planned the movement with a 
view not only to drive out Bragg, but to reach his rear, and, 
forcing him to a battle at a seriotis disadvantage, to overwhelm 
him and destroy his army. The weather had been most favor- 
able, and the country roads were in good order. It was mid- 
summer, when continued rains are unusual. But upon the 
morning of the advance the rain commenced, and continued as 
if the very windows of heaven had been opened. For seventeen 
consecutive days the rain fell in remarkable quantity. No such 
stormy period had visited that country for twenty-six years 
past. The army moved on through the storm ; but the roads 
were soon cut up, and the rear squadrons and columns, with the 
supply and ammunition trains, were for several days completely 
" stalled" in the mud. This of course delayed our advance, and 
permitted Bragg to retreat upon his railroad with all his material. 



CEOSSING THE TENNESSEE EIVEE. 

There was some delay in the advance of the army as it 
approached the fo(»t of the Cumberland Mountains. This was 



CHATTANOOGA TAKEN BY STRATEGY. 457 

caused by the period of incessant rain, the mud of the country 
roads impeding army locomotion, and the teams becoming 
exhausted and requiring rest. Meantime, vigorous railroad 
repairs were being eifected ; bridges were erected, the railroad- 
tunnel below Cowan was cleared out, and, by the time the army 
had reached the river, the shrill shriek of the locomotive again 
pierced the valleys, and the roai of hundreds of bread-and-forage- 
laden cars echoed back from the mountains of Northern Alabama. 
The crossing of the Tennessee Eiver by our ai*my was a 
remarkable feat. After the completion of the means of crossing, 
four days were consumed in the passage of the army at the 
various places. The constant measured tread of infantry; the 
tramp of thousands of cavalry; the rattle and shout, and the 
crack of the whip, as those four thousand heavily-laden wagons, 
in trains miles in length, bounced from the banks on to the 
narrow pontoon causeways ; the heavier jar and crash, as the 
huge artillery vehicles rumbled over the planks, — all must be 
heard to be duly appreciated. The quick passage of our army 
over that wide, swift-running river, without the loss of a single 
man or animal, is a feature in army experience worthy of note. 
To effect this crossing of the larger part of the army. General 
Eosecrans ordered one pontoon bridge to be laid down at Caper- 
ton's Ferry, three miles from Stevenson, twelve hundred and 
fifty feet in length, and another pontoon bridge at Bridgeport, 
twelve miles up the river, of twenty-seven hundred feet. Not 
having pontoons enough to complete the latter, his engineers 
finished out the bridge by setting down trestles and planking 
them over. 



CHATTANOOGA TAKEN BY STEATEGY. 

"We should state here that, previous to this time, General Crit- 
tenden's corps had crossed to the Sequatchie Yalley, midway 
towards Chattanooga, to operate against Bragg on his front, 
from the north and opposite side of the river, while the com- 



458 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

mands of Generals McCook and Thomas were crossing the river 
below. The Union commander had resolved upon capturing 
Chattanooga by strategic movements. In fact, he could not 
hope to enter it by a dii^ect forward movement from the north. 
Bragg was there, in the nook ; his front a broad river, over 
two thousand feet wide, whose banks on his side were lined 
with cannon, ready to sweep off men from pontoon bridges as 
fast as they stepped upon them, or to desti^oy boats, rafts, or 
bridges entire. Therefore a plan was adopted to this effect : 
Crittenden's corps was to go up on the north side of the river 
as far as Chattanooga, and there feign the intention of crossing 
and making the attack in front, — a la Fredericksburg, Va. His 
men made a toilsome march across and among the Cumberlands, 
dragging their cannon over precipices by hand, and accomplish- 
ing their task in about four days' time. Thus temporarily 
located in the Sequatchie Yalley, he despatched four brigades — 
+W0 of cavalry. Colonel Minty's and Wilder's mounted infantry, 
and Generals Hazen's and Waggoner's brigades of infantry — to 
proceed to points on the river opposite Chattanooga and imme- 
diately above and below that town, and make the feigned attack. 
This was done. Some of Wilder's troops above the town let 
ends of logs and rails and bits of lumber float down past Bragg's 
front, as if they were preparing a bridge; other troops slapped 
boards together, to make a lumbering noise; while Wilder un- 
limbered his artillery and shelled the town. Some of his balls 
raised a dusty sensation over the way, one of them, it was said, 
having struck a church during the services of a Sabbath morning. 
While Bragg's attention was thus being occupied, the two 
pontoon bridges below were thrown over and fords were worked, 
as already stated, and the main army of the Cumberland, under 
Generals Thomas and McCook, crossed the river. Our cavalry, 
meanwhile, went mostly by another and more western route, by 
way of Athens, passing through the town of Huntsville,- — thus 
going around (flanking, in military parlance) the most abrupt 
of the Cumberland Mountains. The plan devised for gaining 
Chattanooga we will now more fully elucidate. While Critten- 



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STRATEGIC ADVANCE 

aiid IHaii ot Batfle of 




CHATTANOOGA TAKEN BY STRATE3T. 459 

den was thus to threaten with his four brigades on the opposite 
side, below and in front of that place, to mislead Bragg, the 
main body of the army was to march down into Georgia to 
two gaps piercing Lookout Mountain, and, passing through 
them, to come in on Bragg's rear. Lookout Mountain is a high 
range, or spur, running back from the river, just below Chatta- 
nooga, into the heart of Georgia, — a " hog-back" ridge, so to 
sjjeak, terminating at the river in a steep bluff. It is of great 
height, and its descent upon either side very abrupt an^ rugged. 
The railroad creeps along upon a shelf cut into the solid rock 
under this knob, near the water's edge, where the mountain 
appears to have been separated from its kindred links across the 
river by the floods of the Tennessee, which for countless ages 
have rolled down upon and past this barrier in resistless might. 
The river west of Chattanooga, in its general direction, runs 
southwest. Skirting it is the Raccoon range, of which the Sand 
Mountain, where the army passed over, is part. After march- 
ing over a plateau twelve or fifteen miles in width, the Sand 
Mountain is descended, and the Lookout Valley is gained, some 
two miles wide, running southwest, and bounded on the east 
by the Lookout Mountains, running parallel with the Eaccoon 
range. 

"With this explanation (which we will soon demonstrate to 
the reader by tracing the campaign with him upon our map), we 
proceed with our account of the movement. Lookout Yalley, 
coursing down along the west side of Lookout Mountain, ends 
against an angle, or another spur of that mountain, and this 
place is called Valley Head. Here there is a break in the direct 
line, whore the rugged mountain melts away into a wild scatter- 
ing of considerable hills, near which the road is abruptly turned 
through winding valleys, — not forgetting, however, a jagged and 
stubborn spur which rears its head at this point. This, like 
some other mountain-ranges in North Georgia, is quite wide on 
its top, and, in many places, susceptible of cultivation : so that 
the traveller Avill occasionally meet with a small patch of a farm, 
with usually wretched improvements. Says one of the corre- 



460 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

spondents of the Cincinnati " Commercial," writing of the pass 
at Yalley Head : — 

"After reaching the top, another plateau, some dozen miles 
wide, is encountered, so level and gently rolling, that one laughs 
at his preconceived ideas of the tops of mountains, — if, indeed, 
he does not forget that he has left a valley. No peaks from 
which to unfurl a flag, if any one should be geographically 
poetic ; no sugar-loaves where one can clamber, and feel like a 
giddy exjfloi"er standing on a heavenward land's-end. There are 
groves and fields, and smooth-flowing streams, where the imagi- 
nation pictures verdant crags and cascades." 

Thus General McCook's corps safely and speedily climbed the 

abrupt Eaccoou Mountain, which faces Bridgeport and Stevenson, 

* 
and thence directed their course across, over Sand Mountain, 

through Valley Head, over Lookout Mountain, at Winston's 
Gap, until they reached the next valley, called Broomtown 
Yalley, directly threatening the rebel rear. This was a memo- 
rable march, over a distance of forty-nine miles. From this 
newly acquired point General McCook sent a reconnoitring 
force to Alpine, three miles farther south, to threaten Bragg's 
rear. Still farther down, our own mounted forces were upon 
the move to mj^stify the rebel general, a detachment of Colonel 
Brownlow's Tennessee cavalry going within five miles of Eome. 
Leaving McCook thus located in Bragg's rear, we will explain 
the movement of the corps under General Thomas. He marched 
south from Bridgeport, over spurs of mountains and through 
deep wooded gulches, to the Lookout Valley, followed' that nar- 
row and meandering channel to another depression, crossed 
through at Cooper's and Stevens's Gaps, after toilsome marches 
over the roughest of mountain roads, and took position at the 
mouths of those gaps, in Bragg's rear. This division thus 
marched fifty-one miles from Bridgeport, and was now twenty- 
bix miles south of Chattanooga by the nearest practicable wagon- 
road. McCook's division was seventeen miles farther south, beinjj 
a total of forty-three miles below Chattanooga, and his outpost 
at Alpine, over sixty miles. 



CHATTANOOGA TAKEN BY STRATEGY. 461 

The rebel commander now became fully aware of Eosecrans's 
intention, but too late, if he had even had the force, to prevent 
>.ts execution. By taking possession of the gaps on his side of 
Lookout Mountain, he might have fortified them and prevented 
the passage of our troops. This had not been done; and the 
Federals were now in his rear many miles below, threatening 
his railroad and subsistence, and preventing the arrival of rein- 
forcements. On the 8th of September, General Thomas had full 
occupancy of those gaps, and on the 9th of that month, Gene- 
ral Bragg's army evacuated Chattanooga, going south, mainly 
by the Rome road. In passing down the valley, in front of 
Thomas, Bragg endeavored to cut off some advanced regiments; 
but Thomas cautiously drew them up to him, within the jaws 
of the gaps, and the rebel hosts marched southward rapidly, but 
in regular order. 

Meanwhile General Crittenden was moving. He proceeded 
to cross the main body of his troops over the Tennessee Eiver 
at and above Bridgeport, following Thomas, and then took up 
his line of march for Chattanooga over the very brow of Look- 
out Mountain. Arriving upon the mountain, he found that 
Bragg had fled, leaving the town quite deserted. He entered 
the place at once, and was soon after joined by his four brigades 
from the opposite side of the river. This accomplished. Gene- 
ral Crittenden moved his corps out to Ringgold, on the railroad, 
to reconnoitre the enemy. His advance speedily ascertained 
that Bragg had fallen back only to Lafayette, and had taken 
position. He at once moved with all possible haste across to 
Lookout Mountain, to be within reach of Thomas, for it was 
now apparent that the enemy were becoming more bold and 
belligerent. The reader will find no difficulty in understanding 
that the sole aim of all this strategy and hard marching was to 
force Bragg out of CJiattanooga and to get in there ourselves. Not a 
plan was laid, hardly a thought was indulged in, which did not 
refer to that purpose. Chattanooga was the oBJEcy of that 
campaign. 

We had taken that place, — or, rather, our smallest corps of 



462 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

troops had passed into and through it. But our army was mainly 
down among the mountain-ranges of Georgia, and its occupancy 
of Chattanooga was yet to be. General Eosecrans and staff had 
also marched into Chattanooga, and he there fixed his general 
head-quarters. As for himself, however, and his other officers, 
with the exception of clerks and office-men, his head-quarters 
were in the field, miles below, solely intent upon consolidating 
and bringing his columns north. There were newspaper reporters 
also in Chattanooga upon the entry of Crittenden, and they 
represented to the world that the town was gained and securely 
held, and that the great Army of the Cumberland were now 
marching in pursuit of Bragg, and might possibly pursue him 
even to Dalton and to Atlanta. And there were shouts of a joy- 
ful people at the North at this great success, as announced in the 
daily newspapers. But this news and this joy were premature. 
Not so felt the several Union commanders. Eosecrans, and 
Thomas, and Palmer, and their confreres, were then aware of 
what was soon fully developed, — the reinforcement of Bragg, and 
his turning upon our army. 

The strategic movements of Eosecrans at once alarmed the 
Southern Confederacy. He was moving on them ; but how, 
was the mystery. But they rallied their troops from every 
section. A large portion of Stonewall Jacjison's division of 
Virginia veterans were sent down from Lee's army, with Long- 
street, Lee's best general, in command. Brigades were hurried 
up from Charleston and Mobile. Buckner's army of ten thou- 
sand came down from East Tennessee, and a large force was 
received from Johnston's Mississippi army, which had failed in 
succoring Pemberton at Vicksburg. It is ascertained, also, that 
a considerable number of rebel troops captured and paroled at 
Yicksburg had joined Bragg's army, as well as some eight thou- 
sand of Georgia State militia hastily collected for the emergency. 
Thus Bragg's army Avas swelled, in one iveeJc's time, from about 
forty thousand to upwards of eighty thousand men. We shall 
prove this conclusively farther on. Bragg marched to a short 
distar ce below, and, at a point opposite the gaps where our forces 



CHATTANOOGA TAKEN BY STRATEGY. 463 

lay, halted and took position. Here he met his first heavy rein- 
forcements ; and others began to pour in. He left Chattanooga 
on the 9th of September; on the 16th of the same month he 
addressed a notice to his army, to the effect that, having been 
heavily reinforced, they were now to assume the offensive and 
drive the invaders from the soil of Georgia. 

Of this Eosecrans was early made aware, and to concentrate 
his army and get to Chattanooga, or, at least, to be able to select 
his position and prepare for the grand battle that was threaten- 
ing, was his great object. McCook was ordered to come to 
Thomas, and Crittenden to remain within close supporting dis- 
tance of the latter general. We have stated that the gap where 
McCook's corps had crossed, and in which it now lay, was seven- 
teen miles below the force of General Thomas. McCook was 
instructed to use all possible haste, and, fully advised of Bragg's 
strength and preparations for attack, he moved with great 
celerity. He was informed of a road on the mountain-top that 
would lead him north in an almost direct course to the upper 
gaps; but, relying upon the assertion of scouts and refugees 
that no such practicable route existed, he retraced his march 
through the gap, across the mountain, to Yalley Head, thence 
up Lookout Yalley, to the gaps where Thomas had passed, and 
marched over the same route, joining Thomas at the mouth of 
the gaps, — whereupon Thomas moved away from the gap a short 
distance, towards Chattanooga and Crittenden. Thus McCook 
marched four days and a half over a distance of forty-six miles, 
when he could have come by the cross-road on the mountain, 
seventeen miles, in a day and a half. He acted, however, on 
what he supposed to be his best information, and the error was a 
very natural one. His corps made extraordinary marches during 
those memorable four and a half days, and he and his gallant 
men are entitled to the thanks of the nation. 

But in this delay there was fearful danger and loss of advan- 
tage. The rebel hosts were marshalling and advancing upon our 
army. Had they moved only a day or two sooner, and driven 
Thomas back withia his gaps, holding him there with a portion 



464 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

of their forces while they advanced upon Crittenden with 
their main army and forced him back to Chattanooga, and 
into the river, or among the mountains, how completely foiled 
would have been the Union army I The campaign would have 
been lost, and we would have been left with our forces divided 
far down among the inhospitable mountains. These few days 
were days of deep anxiety to the general commanding and to 
his staff and advisers ! But Bragg, it was subsequently ascer- 
tained, was not ready to attack : his forces were not well in hand, 
and when he moved upon us it was too late to prevent the con- 
centration. The delay occasioned by the roundabout march of 
McCook's corps was mainly unfortunate in this : it prevented 
the Union commander from choosinsi; his battle-field. 

How imperfectly was all this strategy understood, except by 
the generals in command and their confidants ! The soldiers and 
the reporters were equally in the dark as to the object of the 
movements. The retreat of McCook through the mountains, to 
join Thomas, was described by a writer to a prominent paper 
in the Northwest, after the battle and so-called " failure," or 
" defeat," as a hasty and mistaken march farther south, to try 
to get in Bragg's rear and cut off his retreat; and the editor 
of this Northwestern paper was fain to believe, with due sorrow 
and mortification, that Rosccrans had been completely outwitted, 
and thereby badly defeated. Other army correspondents sent 
to the world joyful accounts of the utter demoralization of 
Bragg's army, of his weakness and retreat, as they followed 
down with Crittenden's corps in his march to the support of 
Thomas ! In their mistaken zeal, they already pictured Eose- 
crans at Dalton and Atlanta. They could not perceive the 
gathering of the rebel clans among those mountain-valleys not 
more than ten miles beyond. Had our commander-in-chief 
called into his tent these gentlemen of the press, and explained 
his plans and revealed the tidings brought him by his spies and 
scouts, they would not have fallen into such errors and have so 
grossly misled the public. But such revelations cannot be 
made. Better that the newsmen err than that Bragg be 



CHICKAMAUGA. 465 

informed, through the Louisville, Cincinnati, and New York 
papers, of the scheme that has been so carefully and skilfully- 
elaborated, by which he is walked out of his fortified places 
and great natural defences without the firing of a gun. To hide 
his forces here and there among the valleys, — to move in such 
a way as to baflfle the intelligence of the enemy, — to have the 
main army forty miles in the enemy's rear, when he fancies it 
on his front and just below him, — such was the strategy of Gene- 
ral Rosecrans ; and to publish it before its accomplishment, would 
be far more disadvantageous than to permit the people of the 
Union to be so grossly deceived by the eager and well-inten- 
tioned news-gatherers of the public press. 



CHICKAMAUGA. 



We have shown that Bragg evacuated Chattanooga on the 9th 
of September. He marched down past the valley of Chickamauga 
Creek, some thirty miles, to Lafayette. McCook's corps was at 
once set in motion to rejoin Thomas, which feat was accomplished 
on the 18th. Bragg began to march back on the 17th, to attack 
our corps in detail, before their junction was effected. In this 
he failed : MeCook had come in from the south, and Crittenden 
from the north, in support. The reader will remember that 
Bragg attributes this failure to two of his subordinate generals, 
Polk and Hindman, and after the battle relieved them from their 
commands. Bragg now strikes for the main Eome road, leading 
into Chattanooga, hoping thus to get between our army and the 
river. General Rosecrans foresees this, and orders an advance 
in force to secure this road. General Thomas breaks camp at 
sunset, Friday, the 18th, and makes his memorable night march, 
over hill and through forest and vallej'', and by sunrise next 
morning reaches it and takes position. "Within two hours there 
after, the rebel advance reaches this road, a short distance below 

30 



466 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

our forces, and remains quiet. General Thomas sent out a 
strong reconnoitring force to feel the enemy, about ten o'clock 
on Saturday morning, the 19th. They found the rebels in force 
and advancing, and brisk skirmishing soon merged into severe 
fighting. The rebels were apparently surprised to find the road 
occupied in their advance, and gave battle Avith their accustomed 
impetuosity, following back our reconnoitring column to the 
Union lines, when the battle became general along the entire 
front. Thomas, by his night march, filing to the left past Crit- 
tenden, became the left wing, leaving the latter the centre, and 
McCook, retaining his first position, on the right. 

We shall not attempt to give the movements of the two 
days' battle in detail: the otficial report of the commander-in- 
chief describes them fully and correctly. Our present aim is 
merely to give a general outline of the battle, in connection 
with the strategic plans of the campuign of Chattanooga. 

The battle of Saturday resulted in our general success. The 
contest raged along hillsides and amid forests and ravines. 
The army lines extended over nearly three miles of ground ; and 
only by the smoke that rose above the heights, and the dust that 
ascended above the forest-trees in the valley, or as the cannon's 
roar and the rattling discharges of miisketry were heard upon 
surrounding hills, could the observer note the ebb and flow of 
the tide of battle. 

When the rebels advanced upon Thomas in heavy line of 
battle, he informed General Eosecrans of the fact; and the latter, 
■who was at the righl, personally inspecting the lines, arranging 
batteries, &c., instructed Thomas to hold his position on the 
main road by all possible means, and that, if necessary, he 
■fihould be amply reinforced. The battle raged all day, darkness 
.alone ending the conflict. The fighting was constant, and occa- 
sionally furious. Brigade after brigade of the Union forces was 
moved into the conflict, until every brigade in the army had 
participated. At one period two of our divisions were badly 
driven by immensely superior rebel forces; but the lost ground 
was soon after fully recovered. 'No signal advantage had enured 



CHICKAMAUGA. 467 

to either side when the day's conflict closed, each having taken 
prisoners. But this day of battle had fully demonstrated the 
fact that the Army of the Cumberland was contending against 
fearfully superior numbers of determined and exasperated vete- 
rans. It was reported that some of the rebel Virginia soldiers 
cried out, as they charged upon the walled lines of Thomas, 
" You are not fighting with conscripts now !" to which the 
answer would be shouted back by the Western boys, " You are 
not fighting with Eastern store-clerks !" On the evening of this 
day there was a consultation of commanders at General Rose- 
crans's head-quarters, at the " Widow Glen" house, where it had 
been during the day, within musket-range of the line of battle. 
Each reported that every brigade had been in the day's fight, 
and that our troops had acted finely; but all agreed that in every 
severe attack made upon us we had been invariably outnum- 
bered. It was plain that the next day's contest must be for the 
preservation of the army and the holding of Chattanooga. 

After due consultation with his corps commanders, the follow- 
ing plan for the second day's battle was decided upon, and was 
announced at one o'clock that morning. General Thomas, 
with Johnson's division from McCook's corps, and Palmer's divi- 
sion from Crittenden's corps, was to maintain his present posi- 
tion. McCook was to post the remainder of his corps on the 
right of Thomas ; while Crittenden was to place the remainder 
of his corps in reserve, near the point of junction of the other 
two corps, and to support either, as circumstances might require. 
These positions were assumed by daylight. It soon becoming ap- 
parent that the enemy would wage strongest battle on Thomas's 
left, with a design to turn him and reach the main road, ISTeg- 
ley's division was ordered from McCook's line to take position at 
the left of Thomas, and McCook was instructed to close up the 
gap thus made in his line. 

The rebels commenced the battle early; and it raged with tre- 
mendous fierceness, at times, along the entire lines. General 
Thomas reported that the pressure upon him was most severe ; 
and he was instructed, in return, to hold his point without fail, 



468 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

with the assurance that, if necessary, he should be reinforced 
by the entire army. The rebels invariably attacked, and were 
as invariably repulsed, their object appearing to be to find some 
point where our lines might be penetrated. It was in consequence 
of this manner of fighting, the rebels moving while the Federals 
were in position, the latter often lying down and thus loading 
their muskets, only rising to fire and to repel a charge, that the 
rebel killed and wounded greatly exceeded our own. A multitude 
of important orders were given during this time, and many 
movements were made, their i*esults conforming to this general 
outline. All Avent favorably, the enemy being held firmly in 
check and undergoing terrible slaughter, until about one o'clock 
in the afternoon, when, by the misconception of an order, one 
of our divisions was moved in the wrong direction, and a gap 
was left open in our battle-front at the point of junction be- 
tween Thomas and McCook. This the enemy quickly perceived. 
They advanced rapidly and heavily, and poured their columns 
in at the gap, taking both McCook and Thomas on the flank, 
crushing Crittenden, and completely changing the order of the 
battle at that point. General Davis's gallant old division charged 
in to stay the rushing tide, but in vain. General Eosecrans was 
speedily present, and ordered forward Sheridan with two light 
brigades; but they were also swept back before the rush of the 
now exultant foe. In fact, the right wing of the army was par- 
tially cut oif, and Crittenden's reserve was forced back in con- 
fusion. Thus it was that seven brigades were isolated fi'om 
Thomas and the main bodj^ of the army. Sheridan retreated in 
tolerable order, and by a qxiick movement eventually succeeded 
in getting to the support of Thomas. On both sides of this gap 
the fighting was irregular and against us, we there losing most 
of the prisoners and guns taken by the enemy. The rebels now 
charged down the valley, and among hills and forests, surround- 
ing, crushing, and capturing, until they were recalled by their 
leaders to assist in the necessary driving of Thomas from the 
iftain road. 

General Thomas was still in strong position with his corps, 



CHICKAMAUGA. 469 

reinforced by Palmer's, Wood's, and Johnson's divisions, and 
one brigade of Van Cleve's division. The rebels now bent all 
their energies to the dislodging of our main army. They at- 
tacked, and were repulsed, again and again. Our troops fought 
well : they were nobly led. Thomas, Palmer, Johnson, and other 
Union generals, won imperishable honor by their coolness and 
bravery. From two o'clock until sunset the battle thus raged 
in front of our lines. The rebels, in despair, hurled their entire 
army upon the devoted Union forces, who were now outnum- 
bered by more than two to one and were greatly exhausted. 
General Granger's command, however, of three fresh brigades, 
arrived, soon after the breaking of our line of battle, from to- 
wards Rossville, and at this critical juncture they bore the brunt 
of the shock. General Stedman, the Ohio fighter, marched to a 
gap which was being attacked by Longstreet's men, with two 
of the fresh brigades, and for forty minutes the most fui-ious 
contest of the battle took place. He repulsed the advancing 
horde three times, with frightful slaughter, himself losing nearly 
one thousand men from his command. The rebels now gave up 
the contest and withdrew. 

Thus ended the battles of Chickamauga. The enemy were too 
severely cut up to again offer battle. Their desperate charges 
were led by their officers in person : hence their loss in generals, 
twelve of whom were said to be discomfited, — four of them being 
killed, four mortally and four slightly wounded. Their loss in 
colonels and subordinate officers was proportionately severe. 
The cannon of Thomas, at times, mowed down their advancing 
troops as the grass falls before the reaper. During the night of 
this last day of battle, General Thomas, not knowing what the 
enemy might attempt the next day, fell back three miles, un- 
molested, and took up a much stronger position near Eossville. 
Here the Union forces formed in line of battle, and remained 
during the next day, — Monday; and, the enemy not appearing, 
on that evening the army took up the march for Chattanooga, a 
distance of five miles, and entered it in order, with all their 
material. 



470 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

General Eosecrans, when our line was pierced, and after 
vainly attempting to stem the rebel tide with the troops at hand 
of Davies's and Sheridan's divisions, started with his attendants 
to reach General Thomas. The enemy being between them and 
that officer, and the country being of the roughest character 
imaginable, without roads or even horse-paths, the party also 
being strangers to the locality, they determined to debouch to 
the rear and gain the main road at Eossville, a distance of four 
miles, and then repair to the main army. At or near Eossville 
was a reserve force under General Granger; and the intention 
of General Eosecrans was to order this reserve forward to the 
support of Thomas forthwith. 

Arriving at Eossville, it was ascertained that Thomas was 
holding his own, with prospects of keeping the enemy at bay 
until night; also, that Granger's reserve had already started 
to his support. Thus, all was as yet well in that quarter. But 
General Eosecrans's attention was now drawn to Chattanooga. 
The wildest confusion reigned there and along the roads. The 
seven brigades of McCook and Crittenden, numbering perhaps 
ten thousand men, were much demoralized. In general terms, 
and to give a clear understanding of the matter to the reader, 
without pretending to accuracy in figures, we will say that 
perhaps one-half of these broken troops were halted, reformed, 
and gradually moved back to the rear of Thomas during the 
afternoon, while the remainder, numbering perhaps five thou- 
sand men, together with teamsters and the usual array of camp- 
followers and attendants, were directing their way through the 
forests and by every footpath towards Chattanooga. 

General Eosecrans was as yet uncertain of the general result. 
It was now about three o'clock in the afternoon, and appearances 
were much against him on his right. He consulted with his 
attendants, and soon decided — as would any prudent commander 
whose army was in fearful jeopardy — to aim at two j^oints : 
first, to hold the enemy at bay, if possible, until night, and then 
to retreat into Chattanooga ; secondly, to have that place put in 
due state of defence. Having thus determined, and deeming it 



CHICKAMAUGA. 471 

luost important that he should look after his rear, he despatched 
his chief of staff, General Garfield, to the front, to convey intel- 
ligence and orders to General Thomas. General Eosecrans 
proceeded to the town, arriving there about four o'clock in the 
afternoon, and set about preparations for defence. The thou- 
sands of teams that filled the main streets in rows four and five 
deep, were ordered across the river. The stragglers were put 
to work, and many of them were reformed and sent back to the 
army. Breast-works were planned and commenced in the rear 
of the place, ready for a new and last line of battle, should such 
a struggle come. Our troops had been out twenty-one days, 
and their supply of rations and ammunition was nearly ex- 
hausted. The long lines of our supply- trains were near Chat- 
tanooga, in the valley, ten miles distant from the main battle- 
field; and General Eosecrans well knew that, were those trains 
cut off and destroyed by the rebel advance, our forces would be 
starved out of Chattanooga as well as fought out of it. The 
safety of those trains, and the security of the several fords and 
of his pontoon-bridges, were not forgotten by our general in 
that hour of critical danger. Although Thomas was holding 
the greatly superior enemy in check, the latter might succeed in 
a flank movement, causing our forces to fall back to the town, 
perhai)S in haste and disorder. The commander-in-chief had 
been constantly upon the battle-fields. He was most fearful of 
the failure of our right, weakened as it had been by reinforce- 
ments sent elsewhere. Throughout he was busy in receiving 
reports, despatching orders, posting troops, and personally over- 
seeing the placing of batteries. Cool, clear, and calm as an 
autumn day, and, though most anxious, yet hopeful, his manner, 
as upon the open fields at Stone Eiver, was cheering, and his 
words encouraging. But the country was so broken that his 
two miles of army lines were in a great measure hidden from 
his view. He was not able to judge of events upon the instant, 
nor was the ground susceptible of such action on his part as 
was exhibited upon the cotton-fields of Murfreesborough. The 
reader will remember that the line of the Chickamauga was an 



472 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

accidental battle-field to both contending armies. It afforded 
few opportunities for the ordinary field display of generalship. 
In such a contest, success lay mainly with the bravest and the 
greater numbers, accident, etc. 

General Garfield, chief of staff, proceeded to General Thomas 
and explained the condition of affairs, informing him that, if 
he deemed it advisable, he could retire the army to Eossville after 
night and there take a stronger position, or that, if necessary, 
he could come in to Chattanooga. This was Sunda}'^ night; 
and the town was, as above stated, filled with " demoralized" 
soldiers, teamsters, sutlers, and camp-followers, including, per- 
haps, we ought to add, sundry newspaper reporters. Each 
person had his own version of the scenes of the battles and of 
our "awful defeat." Those who flee invariably magnify the 
cause of their flight. While the main bulk of the glorious 
Army of the Cumberland was in good order, and successfully 
repelling the attacks of the enemy, our "Bohemian" corps — as 
represented by at least two or three of its prominent members 
— were busily engaged in shedding their befogged ideas upon 
paper, assuring the country that our army had been fighting the 
entire Southern Confederacy and had been terribly defeated. 

To show conclusively that the battle of Chickamauga was a 
necessity, that it was forced upon our army, let us advert to the 
dates of the various movements. General Thomas accomplished 
his march through Lookout Mountain in Bragg's rear on the 
12th of September. General McCook passed through Winston's 
Gap, and took position on the 10th. General Bragg evacuated 
Ciiattanooga on the 8th and 9th, and passed southward, in front 
of Thomas, on the 12th. McCook was ordered to retire and 
join Thomas on the 12th, which task he mainly accomplished 
by the 18th. Crittenden moved to the support of Thomas on 
the 18th. Bi'agg issued his order to his troops, assuring them 
of reinforcements and their ability to drive "the invaders," &c. 
on the 16th, and he commenced his advance movement upon our 
army and Chattanooga on the 17th. On the 18th his pickets and 
cavalry had constant skirmishing with our forces, and on the 



CHICKAMAUGA. 473 

19th and 20th were fought the great battles. It will thus be 
perceived that General Eosecrans lost no time in marching upon 
Chattanooga and in concentrating his army, when the rebels 
assumed the offensive. 

We should here state — in justice to our subject and to indi- 
viduals — that so aj)parently necessary and expedient was this 
action upon the part of General Eosecrans, that not until soon after 
his removal, which took place some four weeks after the battle, 
was a breath of reproach heard respecting it. One circiTm- 
stance, probably, tended to call attention to the fact that he 
left the battle-field before the close of the conflict, — viz. : the entry 
of Major-Generals McCook and Crittenden into Chattanooga 
without their commands. It is due to those gallant oflSicers, than 
whom we know none more brave and determined upon the 
field of battle, and to the officers upon their staffs, and to the 
soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland who were under theii 
command, that the following facts should be made known. 

We have stated that the commands of McCook and Crittenden 
were depleted, to reinforce Thomas, at the main point of the 
battle. We have shown that their line of battle was pierced by 
the enemy at the point where their forces joined on to Thomas, 
partly through an error in the movement of a division, which 
caused a gap in the lines, and partly on account of the overwhelm- 
ing numbers of the rebel army, which then centred at that point, 
after having been repeatedly foiled in their attacks elsewhere. 
The reader has seen that Davis and Sheridan gallantly plunged 
into the breach with their divisions, and were quickly thrust aside 
by the advancing tide. The crumbling in pieces of those seven 
brigades amidst those forest-clad hills and valleys, in midsum- 
mer, where the foliage and unevenness of the locality precluded 
to a great extent any comprehensive view of the situation, has 
been duly commented upon. Generals McCook and Crittenden 
labored with all possible zeal and ardor to repair the disaster 
of the hour. They rode hither and thither, in various direc- 
tions, endeavoring to collect their scattered forces. They found 
their men wherever they rode, completely disorganized, some- 



474 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

times in squads and gi-oups, but more often singly and by twos 
and threes, all urging their way back through the thickets 
towards Chattanooga. To reform the men, under such circum- 
stances, was a sheer impossibility. That they attempted it, and 
made all possible exertions to retrieve the fortunes of the day, 
will, we are assured, be fully established by their official reports. 
Under the circumstances, — it being then after three o'clock in 
the afternoon, — they deemed it advisable to repair to Chatta- 
nooga. We speak of them in connection for the sake of brevity 
only. They came in separately, neither knowing of the where- 
abouts of the other. Not until they reached the town could 
they ascertain the situation of affairs with General Thomas. 
They reported to General Eosecrans; and he bade them wait 
until intelligence came in from General Garfield. Upon its 
arrival, with the assurance that our army held its position 
firmly, they returned to the front, and assisted in the falling 
back, during the night, to the new line of defence near Eoss- 
ville, and, finally, came into Chattanooga with the army. 

No complaint was uttered against these two ofiicers by Gene- 
ral Eosecrans. The Secretary of War, however, found reason 
for ordering their immediate suspension from their positions, 
and commanded them to appear at Indianapolis, Indiana, there 
to undergo trial as military felons. We have fully and candidly 
stated the facts : from them let the people of our land render 
judgment. The army was surprised and shocked at this sudden 
action, attended as it was by the instant consolidation of the 
20th and 2l8t Army Corps. It was considered an imputation 
on the bravery of hundreds of officers and thousands of men 
in the Army of the Cumberland, too monstrous to be enter- 
tained. 



MAP or THE STEATEGIO MOVEMENT. 

To afford valuable instruction is one of the main objects of 
this volume. We have fully portrayed with our pen the march 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 475 

of the Army of the Ciimberltuid upon Chattanooga. Still further 
to aid the reader, we have prepared a map with much care, upon 
which the entire movement can be traced. Let the reader turn 
to it, and accompany us in its examination. 

Our army is starting from Murfreesboroiigh. The several blue 
lines indicate the marching of the several commands. General 
McCook's corps take to the right, and Thomas and Crittenden 
to the left; and thus they flank Bragg at Tullahoma, and he 
retreats. Our army soon pushes on, reaching Stevenson, Bridge- 
port, and Jasper. The Tennessee Eiver is now crossed by 
McCook and Thomas, and their lines of march are readily traced 
down among the valleys and ridges and through Lookout Moun- 
tain to the rear of Bragg. The rebels evacuate; and Crittenden, 
who has meanwhile crossed the Tennessee and marched up 
towards Chattanooga, now enters that town, and then sets out 
for Einggold. It will be perceived that Bragg is now heavily 
reinforced, and turns upon Thomas and McCook. The march 
of the latter back to form a junction with the former is shown 
by the dotted blue lines. Bragg now marches for the main road 
to Chattanooga, and to get in front of our army, as is seen by 
the course of the red lines. Thomas also makes for the same 
road ; and the battle ensues. 

The reader will be amplj- repaid, in the study of these army 
movements, by the acquisition of knowledge respecting military 
strategy accomplished upon American soil and attended by one 
of the greatest battles of modern times. 



GENEEAL SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION. 

The occupation of Chattanooga was accomplished. For seven 
months past, since the taking of Murfreesborough, this had been 
the task for our army to perform. The entire object has been 
gained ; and we are quite unable to perceive wherein lies " the 
defeat," " the disaster to Eosecrans," &c. &c., that the patriotic 



476 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

people of the North and West have been solicited to believe. 
That such a wrong impression respecting a great battle could 
arise, appears almost incredible : yet, under the peculiar circum- 
stances, it may be exj)lained. The partial occupancy of Chatta- 
nooga by Crittenden's corps would lead the world to believe 
that the Army of the Cumberland was there. The regretful 
thought would then arise, our army having got so snugly into 
Chattanooga, why race down among the mountains fifty miles 
to get up a fight with rebels, reinforced as they unquestionably 
would be ? Some reporters stated that McCook and Thomas 
were going on to Dalton, and Atlanta, and Savannah, and 
Charleston, leaving Bragg penned up in Chattanooga with our 
army at his door ! When once understood, as we here endeavor 
to explain it, the American people will appreciate the fact that 
the strategic campaign of Rosecrans on Chattanooga was one 
of the most extensive, the grandest, and the most successful of 
the war. 

To show how completely deceived were very many able men 
as to our having gained Chattanooga, we copy the following 
editorial from the New York " Tribune" of September last, which 
assumes tiiat the Army of the Cumberland was then in that 
place safe and snug : — 

" Chattanooga. — The occupation of Chattanooga by General Rosecrans 
is a more brilliant success than if achieved by help of a victory. 'Battles 
are the last resort of a good general,' said one of the greatest. We are a 
little slovf to believe it ; but General Rosecrans is so thorough a teacher that 
the dullest of us shall yet prove apt scholars under his instruction'. The 
popular imagination delights to conceive him in the storm of bullets, amid 
which his courage and capacity turned defeat to victory at Murfreesborough. 
Magnificently done it was ; but Chattanooga is a still higher talent. Needless to 
remind ourselves that it was a famous rebel stronghold. Its impregnability 
has been vaunted in every rebel journal for a twelvemonth past. Nature 
had done her utmost to secure it from assault,, and engineering science had 
trebled its natural strength. 

" General Rosecrans might have buried half his army on its craggy slopes 
before he had fought his way into its recesses ; but he turns its terrors into 
triumph by skilful strategy, and a simple flank movement discloses the 
weakness of this formidable fastness. It is simple, however, only in the 
same sense in which nearly all grand mananivres are simple. They are the 
exact application of simple general principles in difficult circumstances, the 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 477 

natural obstacles being in this case the greatest to overcome. Rivers, moun- 
tains, impracticable roads, a country barren of supplies, — these are what 
test a commander's capacity, and what General Rosecrans has just proved 
himself master of." 

Even by the officers and privates of our army the strategy of 
their commander was very imperfectly understood at the outset, 
and it was by them grossly, though innocently, misrepresented. 
But by the time the result was attained, the whole army fully 
appreciated it, and they now consider this achievement as the 
grandest and most important of all. It is said that while riding 
along the lines after the final occupancy of the town, General 
Eosecrans thus addressed his troops in return for their cheers : — 
" Fellow-soldiers : — We struck for Chattanooga, — we fought for 
Chattanooga, — and here we are I" 

An appreciative officer of our army (unknown to the author) 
writes as follows to friends in Wisconsin : — 

"In the Trenches at Chattanooga,") 
September 25, 1863. J 

" My dear Uncle : — 

********* 
" The campaign I regard as one of the most brilliant and successful of the 
war. We have occupied the most important stronghold in the hands of the 
enemy against a vastly superior force. When Bragg evacuated this place, 
he expected, with the aid of large reinforcements, to take advantage of the 
weakness of our line, McCook's corps (right wing) being nearly forty miles 
distant from Chattanooga, where our left rested. This extension of our right 
was necessary in order to execute the flanking movement. Nothing seemed 
easier than for Bragg to cut us in two, and annihilate our comparatively 
small army by whipping us in detail. It was a skilfully laid and evidently 
long-matured plan of Bragg, and was foiled only by the consummate strategy 
of Rosecrans and the determined pluck of his troops. 

" The right wing marched all night, fought and marched all day, thereby 
shifting itself to the centre before the enemy had time to strike ; the left 
wing, aided by Granger's Reserve Corps, at the same time successfully pre- 
vented the efforts of the enemy to turn our left flank and get between Rose- 
crans and Chattanooga. For three days we contended against the over- 
whelming numbers of the enemy in this disadvantageous position, when 
Rosecrans finally succeeded in concentrating his army, saving his trains, and 
in occupying Chattanooga — the coveted position — in such force as to insure 
its permanent possession. 

" The object of the campaign has been fully accomplished, and we have 
had to contend with much greater difficulties than ever we anticipated. The 



478 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

enemy has been baffled and outwitted ; he has gained no compensating 
advantage for the loss of Chattanooga in any way ; and I believe that his loss 
in killed, wounded, and prisoners is even heavier than ours. We in the army 
can appreciate better than you at home the genius of our commander in 
extricating us from our perilous position." 

That officer could not have stated the case more clearly had 
he had his general's maps and notes in hand. 

General Eosecrans's official report admits a loss (displacement) 
of sixteen thousand men, and General Bragg officially confesses 
to a loss of seventeen thousand. The Union commander an- 
nounces in the same report that the enemy took four thousand 
nine hundred of our men prisoners, including the wounded 
on the battle-field ; while we took two thousand rebel prisoners, 
none of them wounded. 

As regards the extent of the rebel forces at the battles of 
Chickamauga, General Rosecrans assumes that they had at least 
seventy thousand men, upon this basis. "We took prisoners from 
one hundred and fifty-three rebel consolidated regiments. They 
will average four hundred men to each regiment, — sixty-two 
thousand. Add to this at least eight thousand men for artillery. 
The rebel prisoners generally concurred in that estimate. 

The Marietta (formerly Chattanooga) " Rebel," soon after the 
battle, stated that Bragg was " surrounded by a galaxy of higher 
military talent and backed by a larger army than he ever before 
commanded during his whole military career." 

When the rebel newspapers gave the names of their generals 
M'ho were killed, it was easy to see to what extent reinforce- 
ments had been sent to Bragg. Hood's, McLaws's, and Gregg's 
divisions — the tw^o former of Longstreet's and the latter of 
Ewell's corps — are represented in their list of officers killed and 
wounded. The two divisions out of three of Longstreet's corps 
show forty-two regiments and abou't fifteen thousand men. 
Gregg's division, which is the third of Ewell's corps, numbers 
about ten thousand men. Thus Lee sent to Bragg from twenty- 
five thousand to thirty-one thousand men. When we add to this 
Bragg's original army, swelled by conscripts to at least thirty-five 
thousand men, ten thousand men under Buckner, together with 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 479 

material reinforcements from Johnston and Pemberton's old 
armies, the latter having been declared released from their 
paroles given at Vicksburg, the magnitude of Bragg's army is 
well established. B. F. Taylor, Esq., who is now with the Army 
of the Cumberland as the war-correspondent of the Chicago 
" Journal," writes to that paper under recent date (October) as 
follows : — 

" The business before us is formidable, — how formidable I fear the 
country does not quite appreciate. No such enemy ever sat down before a 
Federal hold, no such host ever before looked us face to face. No such 
stake has been ever before to be played for. One hundred thousand seasoned 
men will not exhaust the rebel roll. We here shall see the most terrible battle 
ever fought on this continent." 

The value of the results of the campaign for Chattanooga is 
now universally recognized. The following, from the Knoxville 
" Register," at present published at Atlanta, Georgia, shows how 
important the rebels feel it to be to recapture East Tennessee : — 

" If any one doubts the necessity which would impel President Davis to 
sacrifice Richmond, Charleston, and Mobile, all to reacquire East Tennessee, 
he need only ask the Commissary-General by what agencies and from 
what source the armies of the South have been sustained during the first 
year of the war. East Tennessee furnished the Confederate States with 
twenty-five millions of pounds of bacon. Last year the State of Tennessee 
fed the army." 

And says the Eichmond " Examiner" of October 31 : — 

" For a long time the importance of East Tennessee to the Confederacy 
seemed to be unappreciated. Not until that country fell into the possession 
of the enemy was its incalculable value realized. Except what was furtively 
obtained from Kentucky, the whole army supply of pork came from East 
Tennessee and the contiguous counties of the adjoining States. The product 
of corn in that region was very heavy, and no portion of the Confederacy, 
equal in extent, afibrded as large a supply of forage and winter pasturage. 
The occupation of East Tennessee by our own armies was not only import- 
ant in itself, but it was important also in respect to the contiguous country 
which it protected. A great line of railway was secured, continental in 
its dimensions and in its value. The saline and lead mines of Virginia, 
which produce all the »alt and lead used in the Confederacy, were protected 
80 long as East Tennessee was ours. 

" But the evacuation of that region, and its surrender without a single 
battle to the enemy, has lost us all these advantages. The railway is broken 



480 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

up, and there can be no communication between General Jones at Bristol 
and General Bragg at Chickamauga, who are less than one hundred and fifty 
miles apart, except by a circuit of twelve hundred miles through Petersburg, 
the Carolinas, and Augusta. The hogs of East Tennessee, affording twenty- 
five millions of pounds of pork, are now being slaughtered for the Yankee 
armies. The vast corn-crops and forage-supplies of that department, suffi- 
cient to winter all the live stock of the Confederate armies, are being fed to the 
fifty thousand horses and mules belonging to the forces of Grant. The salt and 
lead works of the Confederacy, and the numberless caves of Southwestern 
Virginia, from which immense supplies of saltpetre are obtained for the 
Ordnance Department, are now imminently threatened by the close presence 
of hostile armies, requiring the presence of heavy forces of our own for their 
protection." 

After gaining Chattanooga, General Eosecrans vigorously 
pushed forward his earth-Avorks in the rear. As at Corinth, at 
Nashville, and at Murfreesborough, he at once prepared to stay, 
and to make the place an extensive military depot. During four 
weeks he labored incessantly and effectively. 

Notwithstanding the false impressions already mentioned, as 
to our " defeat,'^ '• disaster," and to our being " out-generalled," 
&e., the Union patriots of our land honored our army and its 
commander as greatly as ever, for the last display of their labor, 
their fortitude, and their bravery. It was not, therefore, on ac- 
count of any public dissatisfaction that General Eosecrans was 
relieved from his command. The order came to him, unan- 
nounced, at four o'clock p.m. on the 19th day of October. At 
nine o'clock that evening he turned over his army to his old and 
tried friend and confidant. General Thomas. Desiring to have 
no commotion in the army, he prepared the foHowing order to 
be issued after his departure, and at eight o'clock the next morn- 
ing, October 20, just one year to a day from the time of his leav- 
ing his army at Corinth, Mississippi, to take this command, he 
bade farewell to the Army of the Cumberland : — 

" General Orders, No. 242. 

"Head-Quarters Department of the Cumberland, ■) 
" Chattanooga, Tenn., October 19, 1863. j 

" The general commanding announces to the officers and soldiers of the 
Army of the Cumberland that he leaves them, under orders from the President. 



GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 481 

" Major-Gen eral George H. Thomas, in compliance with orders, will assume 
the command of this army and department. 

" The chiefs of all the staff departments will report to him. 

" In taking leave of you, his brothers in arms, — officers and soldiers, — he 
congratulates you that your new commander comes not to you, as he did, a 
stranger. General Thomas has been identified with this army from its first 
organization. He has led you often in battle. To his known prudence, 
dauntless courage, and true patriotism, you may look with confidence that 
under God he will lead you to victory. 

" The general commanding doubts not you will be as true to yourselves 
and your country in the future as you have been in the past. 

" To the division and brigade commanders he tenders his cordial thanks 
for their valuable and hearty co-operation in all that he has undertaken. 

*' To the chiefs of the staff departments and their subordinates whom he 
leaves behind he owes a debt of gratitude for their fidelity and untiring 
devotion to duty. 

" Companions in arms, — officers and soldiers, — farewell ; and may God 
-bless you ! 

"W. S. EosECRANS, Major- General." 

The causes of this action on the part of the Government have 
not been made public ; but it is the dut}^ of all patriots to pre- 
sume that they are ample. Injurious and defamatory reports 
against General Eosecrans. have arisen in this connection to die 
almost as soon as born. The author passes them hj unnoticed 
farther than to leave them to be refuted by the enemy. 

From the Richmond "Examiner," October 2G. 

" Meantime, Lincoln is helping us. He has removed from command the 
most dangerous man in his army. A variety of mean and damaging pre- 
texts for Rosecrans's removal have been published by the Yankee press. 
But the true reason is the fact that he failed at Chickamauga. 

********* 

" Eosecrans thus retired is unquestionably the greatest captain the Yan- 
kee nation has yet produced. His performances in the field are too fresh in 
the memory of every reader to necessitate recapitulation, "We may, how- 
ever, mention, in proof of his intellectual ability, that he graduated fifth at 
AVest Point in a class of fifty-six, in which General G. W. Smith graduated 
eighth and Longstreet fifty-fourth." 

The gigantic efforts now being made by the rebels to recover 
Chattanooga audits concomitant, East Tennessee, and the deter- 
mination of the Federal Government to retain it, best attest the 
value of General Eosecrans's last campaign. As we have re- 
marked of his strategic and bloodless victory at Tullahoma. so 

31 



482 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND, 

we may claim of Chattanooga, that, had he attacked and stormed 
it in front at a cost of five thousand of his soldiers, the world 
would hail it as a glorious and substantial victory. The result 
of the campaign is .the same, — Chickamauga was the inevitable 
price of Chattanooga. 

Thus we close our history of the Army of the Cumberland. 
To its future, under its wise and beloved leader, General Thomas, 
are committed, to a great extent, the hopes of the patriots of our 
land. May those hopes be gloriously and speedily fulfilled ! 

The theatre of war is now apparently changed; and upon the 
Georgia frontier are to be witnessed the culminating scenes of 
the rebellion. The Union armies are there assembling under 
the direction of Major-General Grant, the successful hero of 
Fort Donelson and Yicksburg. The next campaign of this 
grand- army of the Union, thus commanded, will constitute an 
ej)Och in the history of our nation and of the world. 



I 



POLICE RECORD 

OF OPERATIONS OF 

SPIES, SMUGGLERS, TRAITORS, ETC. 

OCCURRING WITHIN THE LINES 

OF THE 

ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



A REBEL MINUS $109,000. 

A NEST OF NASHVILLE SMUGGLERS. 

THE HOLLOW-HEELED BOOT. 

THE I'SEUDO '-SANDERS." 

DR. HUDSON THE SMUGGLER. 

NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 

GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN'S FEMALE SPY, 

NOKRIS THE KIDNAPPER. 

PHILLIPS, THE KENTUCKY UNIONIST. 

MOORE AND BLUE, THE SCOUTS. 

TF.AINOR, THE TRAITOR WAGON-MASTER. 

A SPY ON GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN. 

SPECIMENS OF REBEL LETTERS. 



CONTENTS. 

A CINCINNATI SPY. 

TWO REBEL CONGRESSMEN'S WIVES. 

JOHN MORFORD, THE SPY. 

FRAUDULENT TRANSFER OF REBEL GOODS, 

MRS. Y 'S BOOTS. 

MRS. MOLLY HYDE. 

ADVENTURES OF TWO UNION SPIES. 

THE MISSES ELLIOTT. 

KILLDARE, THE SCOUT. 

DEATH OP A REBEL GENERAL AND VILLAIK. 

PRISON-EXPERIENCE OF A UNION SPY. 

A NAMELESS SPY. 

NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 



ARMY POLICE RECORD. 



A Eebel Minns One Hundred and Uine Thousand Dollars ! 

One of the most important and interesting cases upon the records of the 
Police of the Army of the Cumberland occurred at Louisville, Kentucky, 
about the time when Major-General Rosecrans was assuming its command 
in October last. The Chief of his Army Police, and some of his assistants, 
had hardly arrived in that city before they got upon the track of the case, 
and fully developed the facts, which are as follow. 

On the last day of October, 1862, as the mail-boat from Cincinnati to 
Louisville was ploughing its way down the Ohio River, well thronged with 
passengers, a party of three persons were to be seen in the saloon, seated 
before a table, enjoying themselves over a friendly glass and whiling away 
the hours with a game of euchre. The three were, comparatively speaking, 
strangers,— had not met with each other previously. Either by accident, by 
mutual attraction, or by spiritual affinity in the double sense (and whether 
these small, yet great, events in life come by chance, or are foreordained, 
we leave to casuists and philosophers to determine), it so happened that 
these three persons took to cards and cocktails from nine o'clock at night 
until two in the morning. One of these parties was Mr. John W. Lee, a 
well-dressed, smooth-faced, courteous, middle-aged gentleman, bearing the 
appearance of a prosperous and well-regulated country merchant. The 
second person was a resident of Cynthiana, Kentucky : his name or busi- 
ness is of no importance, as the only figure he cuts in this story is — like 
that of the deuce-spot in the game — to count. The third party at the table 
was a detective ; and that is enough to know, gentle reader, to appreciate 
fully the story. 

The game of euchre proved the entering wedge for another kind of game. 
The influence of cocktails and brandy-straight opened wide the door of 
friendship and confidence, and Mr. Lee intrusted to the keeping of his new- 
found acquaintance the weighty secret that he had in his charge a large 
amount of gold and greenbacks in transitu to its owners in Dixie. Mr. 
Lee further intimated that he would like to purchase some twenty thousand 
dollars' worth of goods to take to Kentucky to sell, and if he could get passes 
and permits of the military authorities at Louisville to get his money and 
■goods through, he would be all right. Much conversation ensued that night 
and during the following morning, the result of which was that Mr. Lee and 

485 



486 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

his friend we.re to go into partnership in the merchandise, and the friend v as 
to be instrumental in getting the passes, or, if necessary, in running the 
blockade. Franklin, Kentucky, was the point fixed upon as a good locality 
for selling the goods, and, of course, the nearest and best point to rebeldom 
in Tennessee for smuggling purposes. 

Arrived at Louisville, Mr. Lee and his friend proceeded to the express- 
office in that city, — the latter by invitation of the former. Passing along 
the streets, Mr. Lee more fully explained that he had about one hundred 
and sixty thousand dollars in gold and treasury notes ; that he had taken 
English sterling bonds for his friends in Knoxville, Tennessee, to New York 
and there cashed them ; that he had sold the bonds for thirty-two per cent, 
premium ; that he had bought some gold at about the same rate of premium ; 
that the money was to come to Louisville by express, and was there now, 
very probably. Upon inquiry at the office Mr. Lee found this to be the 
case. He asked the agent if Jive bags of gold were there for John W. 
Lee. The agent replied, "No," and said, "Have you not made a mistake 
in the number of bags 2" Mr. Lee looked at his receipt, and said, " Yes ; 
there are seveii bags." This was correct, and the agent expressed his 
readiness to deliver it upon Mr. Lee procuring the usual identification. The 
twain were rather nonplussed: however, Mr. Lee remembered that M. B. 
Whiteside, Esq., of that city, knew him, and would vouch for him; and 
they left the express-office. The detective volunteered to find Mr. White- 
side. He did so ; and that gentleman remarked that he merely knew Mr. Lee, 
but of his loyalty he knew nothing, and declined to vouch for or identify 
him. The new friend, however, did not despair ; he saw Mr. Lee, reported 
progress, or, rather, no progress, and said he had friends in the city whom 
he would introduce, and who could not only identify, but also procure the re- 
quisite passes. All now was well. Mr. Lee and friend smiled most pleasantly 
in that very luxurious but rather one-sided apartment, the saloon of the 
Gait House. But — alas for the evanescent bliss of the happiest of mortals 1 
— at this juncture a policeman tapped our tapsters on the shoulder, and they 
followed him to the shades. Mr. Lee was informed that he was under 
arrest ; that his money had been seized where it lay in the express-office ; 
that he would not be confined, however, but liberated on his parole not to 
leave the city. The new friend was hustled off to prison summarily, as an 
old offender ; i.e. he was marched away from Mr. Lee under arrest ; and 
then, most probably, set off to work up some other case of rascality, pos- 
sibly a little sad at the loss of his prospective partnership in the country 
store at Franklin, or, more possibly, smiling at the trick that Mr. Lee was 
playing upon him, in holding out to him such an inducement to aid the 
smuggler on his way. 

There was now a shadow upon the countenance cf John W. Lee aforesaid. 
He paced to and fro through the public halls of the Gait House, as if 
tormented by a perturbed spirit. The close observer might have noted 
as much at a glance; and one person there was, lingering around that 
hotel, in and about, who was thus taking notes. He was a gentleman 



A REBEL MINUS HIS GOLD. 487 

familiar with the purlieus of the Gait House, and, probably, of many other 
houses in the city of Louisville. Some trivial pretext for conversation soon 
occurred, and this gentleman introduced himself to Mr. Lee as a paroled 
Confederate surgeon and a Mississippian, who enjoyed the privilege of the 
city through the interposition of influential friends. Our quondam surgeon 
had also come heavily to grief, and at once proceeded to unbosom himself to 
the interested Mr. Lee. He told him that, because of his prominence and 
inflvience as a Southern Rights man, his name was not placed upon the 
regular cartel for exchange, recently made out by Major-General Buell, that 
he was about to proceed to Bowling Green, then the head-quarters of Major- 
General Rosecrans, to have his name thus properly placed, and that he would 
then proceed home speedily, and without taking the oath of allegiance to the 
Federal Government. 

This tale was pleasant to John W. Lee. It was told with such earnest- 
ness and unction, and was so well concocted, that it threw him completely 
off his guard. Here was trouble with which he could heartily sympathize. 
By this time the tAf ain were cosily seated in the gentlemen's parlor of the 
Gait House, and Mr. Lee seemed to crave for friendly sympathy in return. 
To insure its extension, he gave this account of his affairs and their present 
condition. 

During the last autumn two persons from Kentucky passed through the 
North and proceeded to the city of Augusta, Georgia. There they purchased 
of Thomas Metcalf English sterling exchange to the amount of nearly two 
hundred thousand dollars, paying for it entirely in Confederate scrip, all 
of which proved to be counterfeit. Upon ascertaining this fact, Metcalf 
at once sent to Knoxville for Lee, asking him to come to Augusta: he did 
so, and it was agreed that he (Lee) should have thirty-three and one-third 
per cent, of all the amount he could recover. This was a bright idea with 
our Southern brother Metcalf; for Lee was known at home as a good Union 
man, and could travel about among the Yankees and hunt up the money 
at will. 

Mr. Lee was faithful and energetic in his search for the lost treasure. 
Aladdin never rubbed his lamp with more ardor than did this gentleman seek 
for sterling bonds or their proceeds. He found his way back to Morganfield, 
Union county, Kentucky, on the 16th day of October, 1862. He crossed the 
Southern lines upon passes furnished him by Metcalf; and, of course, he 
could pass through the United States upon the strength of his Unionism pure 
and undefiled. He obtains an introduction to Mr. George R. Ellis, of that 
town, — the latter being an officer, a constable or deputy sheriff, we believe, 
— and hires his assistance to find two persons, by name, Frank Payne and 
Martin Hancock, telling him that these persons had passed counterfeit Con- 
federate money on the firm of Metcalf & Co., of Augusta, Georgia, to the 
amount of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, or thereabouts ; that 
they lived somewhere in that vicinity, and that he wished to find thorn. 

Lee and Ellis, after a vigorous search, found Hancock in Henderson 
county, and ascertained that Payne was either dead or had left the country. 



488 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

Thev invite Hancock into a room, and Lee produces a letter from Metcalf & 
Co. (And here, by the way, we should remark that the latter gives two or 
three different names of parties in Georgia who owned the sterling bonds. 
In stating the case to the supposed Confederate surgeon, at the Gait House, 
Louisville, he gave the owner's name as Thomas Metcalf, of Augusta, 
Georgia ; and in stating it to Mr. Ellis — as we see by Ellis's affidavit — he 
gave the owners' names as Whiteman & Co., of Augusta, Georgia.) This 
letter Lee read to Hancock ; it charged him (Hancock) and Payne with 
passing off the counterfeit money, Hancock at once admitted the fact, and 
then and there agreed to refund the whole amount involved to Lee, as agent 
for the owners, informing him that the money was in New York City, and 
that he would go on with him and make it all right. Lee then employed 
Ellis to accompany them to watch Hancock and make all sure, agreeing to 
pay him five hundred dollars for the service. The three soon started for 
the East; and at Cincinnati Hon. Judge Trigg joined the party as counsel, 
procured by the far-sighted Lee. To be brief, they reached New York City, 
and there recovered one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars in money, 
and Hancock gave his note to Lee for fifteen thousand dollars, payable 
three months thereafter at Nashville, Tennessee. 

The party returned to Cincinnati, bringing the money in two large trunks, 
which were so heavy that Lee feared they would excite suspicion, and there 
telegraphed back to New York respecting the exchange of the gold for 
Southern scrip, or something that would answer the purposes of the owner. 
Mr. Ellis and Judge Trigg parted from Lee at Cincinnati, and the latter 
came on to Louisville with the money, as related in the beginning of this 
chapter. 

So much for the story of John W. Lee, told to our confidence-man, the 
Confederate surgeon. The latter heartily sympathized with his friend, and 
with the Southern owner, who, he hoped, would yet get his money from 
the Federal clutches. The surgeon remarked, — 

" I have a heartfelt interest in your case. I am a native of Georgia. 
I know Thomas L. Metcalf, of Augusta, well, and he is a true, uncom- 
promising friend of the South. He is very wealthy, — a heavy cotton-dealer 
and ship-owner, &c. When the war broke out, Mr. Metcalf raised and 
equipped a company called the Metcalf Guards, which company fought at 
the first battle of Bull Run, and was, sad to say, almost annihilated." 

"I am pleased to hear this," replied Lee, "and that Mr. Metcalf has 
another friend here. But one thing let me caution you about: don't 
breathe a word here about his Southern Rights course, as you respect 
him and love the cause. Be very careful ; for I shall now insist that he is a 
good Union man, and think that I can thus get his money back and save my 
portion of it." 

The surgeon of the Confederacy promised faithfully to be silent on that 
point. It was also further arranged that he would at once go to Bowling 
Green, see Major-General Rosecrans, get his exchange papers adjusted, 
and return to Louisville, when Lee would have letters ready for Mr. Met- 



A NEST or NASHVILLE SMUGGLERS. 489 

calf explaining the Ills that had happened to their plan, which letters were 
to be taken to the sunny South by the surgeon. 

The story is told. Mr. Lee saw the surgeon no more ; nor did his old 
steamboat friend again turn up. His money is now in possession of the 
United States Government, and the trial of the case is pending, we believe, 
in the United States District Court at Louisville. When we last heard 
from John W. Lee, the good Union man, he had feed a lawyer for ten 
thousand dollars to win the case, at Washington, where he expected to 
get back his bargained share, thirty-three per cent, of the sum total. This 
statement is compiled from the evidence of the two witnesses, — the surgeon 
and Mr. Ellis of Kentucky, — and, if the facts are as thus stated, Mr. Lee 
will have a happy time of it in recovering his percentage. 



A Nest of Hashyille Smugglers. 

For many weary months after its occupation by the Federal army, Nash- 
ville was the great centre to which thronged all the hordes of smugglers, 
spies, and secret plotters of treason, whom a love of treachery or of gain had 
drawn to the rebel cause. The aid and encouragement received from the 
wealthy Secessionists of the city enabled them securely and successfully to 
carry out their designs, which, added to its proximity to the heart of the 
Confederacy, made it a peculiarly advantageous base of operation. Through 
them, lines of communication were kept open to every part of the South, 
and the rebel army supplied with valuable goods and still more valuable 
information. Their shrewdness and secrecy seemed to defy every attempt at 
detection. The regular pickets, do what they would, found it impossible to 
prevent the transportation of contraband goods beyond the lines ; and it was 
only when mounted policemen were stationed on every road leading from the 
city that a noticeable decrease in the operations of these aiders and abettors 
of the rebellion became apparent. As an illustration of the beneficial effects 
of the new arrangement, and to show to what great results a trifling circum- 
stance will sometimes lead, the case of the three Friedenbergs and the 
developments to which it gave rise are here narrated. 

On Sunday, the 28th of December, 1862, as two of these policemen were 
patrolling the Murfreesborough pike, they saw coming towards the city a 
buggy in which were seated three men. At first glance there was nothing 
to distinguish them from ordinary travellers ; but when they had drawn near 
enough to see the policemen, the youngest and smallest of the three jumped 
from the buggy and made for the woods with desperate speed. This, of 
course, excited suspicion, and he was at once pursued, but unavailingly. 
His two companions, however, were halted and sent under guard to the 
police-office. An examination of themselves and vehicle revealed the 
presence of nothing contraband; the only thing found upon them being 



490 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

several hundred dollars in Southern money. Their names, they said, ■were 
Besthoff and Friedenberg. They had been engaged in merchandizing at 
Atlanta, Georgia, before the war, and had remained there until recently. 
Finding they could no longer keep out of the rebel army, they determined to 
escape ; had closed out their stock at what it would bring, and with the pro- 
ceeds were now on their way North. Of the young man with them when 
first seen, they either could or would say nothing more than that he was a 
stranger whom they had found at Murfreesborough, and who had begged a 
passage in their buggy to Nashville. Such was the substance of a very 
pitiable story of hardships, suffering, and heavy losses, related with much 
volubility and feeling, and, there being no evidence contradictory of it, or 
warranting their further detention, — whatever private reasons there may 
have been to suspect its truth, — they were released. 

Attention was again directed to the young man — or boy, rather — who had 
escaped. His hasty flight indicated something wrong, and detectives were put 
upon his track. For several days nothing was heard of him ; but one morning 
he was seen gliding stealthily through an alley in the city, and, chase being 
made, was this time soon caught. He was found to be a German Jew, not 
yet sixteen years old, but bright and quick-witted far beyond what is 
usual at such an age. An examination at the police-office disclosed upon 
his person about six hundred dollars, which was taken from him. On being 
questioned, he said that his name was James Wilson ; that he formerly lived 
in Cleveland, East Tennessee, but had been peddling in Atlanta, Georgia. 
His story was much the same as that of Friedenberg and Besthoff ; he had 
sold his goods, was anxious to get away and go to Germany, was tired of the 
business, had lost heavily, &c. As in the case of the others, this was reason- 
able enough in itself, and he was about to be released, when a gentleman 
sitting in the office — formerly a resident in the South, but now in the army 
police service — called Colonel Truesdail to one side, and said to him, — 

"That boy is lying to you, — is telling you a series of lies right along. I 
know him, and know who and what he is. I saw him at Murfreesborough 
peddling contraband goods, where he was generally known to be a smuggler, 
and I recognized him at once while he was talking to you." 

" Take him into another room, then," said the colonel, " and work upon 
him. Talk sharp to him ; tell him that you know all about him, and how 
you know it. Convince him that you have seen him in the South and know 
what he was doing there, and then tell him that if he will own up, tell all 
he knows about these smuggling operations, and disclose the names of those 
engaged in it, we will return him his money and let him off without punish- 
ment; but, if he won't do that, we'll keep his money and send him to the 
penitentiary." 

This was done ; but the boy still persisted for some time in his original 
atory. Finding, however, that he really was known, and that it was likely 
to fare hard with him, he finally yielded and made a new statement, 
which was in substance as follows. 

His name, he still said, was James Wilson,— this was afterward found to 



A NEST OF NASHVILLE SMUGGLER'S. 49X 

be untrue, — and he had been living in Cleveland, as he first stated, for tvro 
years. He was a native of Germany, and his parents still resided there- 
About two months since he came to Nashville, — purchased goods, succeedea 
in smuggling them through the Federal lines, and took them to Atlanta, 
Georgia, where he sold them. The goods were purchased of Staddler & 
Brother, No. 2 Public Square, and Kleinman & Co., on Market Street, and 
consisted entirely of fine combs, for which he paid one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per dozen. These he packed in two satchels, and, wishing to get them 
out of the city, was introduced to one F. W. Keller, residing about one and 
a half miles out on the Zollicofi"er Road, who took him and his goods out to his 
house the same evening, with his children, as he carried them home from 
school. Keller also took out with him at the same time a box of goods 
which he said he had bought of the Friedenbergs. For helping him out, 
Wilson paid Keller fifty dollars, and received from him the next morning a 
note to one Avis Brown, in which it was stated that the bearer was a smug- 
gler who wished to get away as soon as possible, and requesting Brown to 
assist him in doing so. From Keller's Wilson made his way, partly on foot 
and partly on a horse which he purchased on the road, to Brown's, who 
received him kindly and showed him the way. Thence he went to Franklin 
and Murfreesborough, where he sold his horse and took the cars for Atlanta. 
Here he sold the combs for one dollar each, and then returned by rail to Mur- 
freesborough, where he met Friedenberg and Besthoff, with whom he came 
to Nashville, arriving there — or rather in sight of the policemen — on Sunday, 
the 28th of December. This trip occupied about twelve days, and proved 
very profitable to him ; and it was now his intention to go home to Germany. 
Respecting others engaged in smuggling goods through the lines, he said 
that he knew a Mr. Wolff, living in Atlanta, who had recently purchased au 
assortment of buttons, needles, pins, gold lace, &c., which he had carried out 
in a two-horse wagon that had a false bottom to the bed, and taken to Chat- 
tanooga, where the witness had assisted in unloading them. One A. Haas 
had a two-horse carryall with a false bottom, and had the previous month 
taken in it a load of goods from Nashville to Atlanta, where he also resided. 
The false bottom, he said, was put into the carryall in Nashville. Leo Cohen 
also had a false-bottomed wagon, which he had made in Nashville, and with 
which he had smuggled a load of contraband articles to Atlanta. About 
three months ago, a man living at Selma, Alabama, had come to Nashville 
and purchased two wagon-loads of goods, which he took through the lines 
with him to Chattanooga, whence he made his way to Selma. He knew, he 
said, further, that Schwab & Co., a heavy firm in Nashville, had been engaged 
fu smuggling, but not to what extent. As to the Friedenbergs, &c., he did not 
know, of his own knowledge, that they had been running goods through the 
Federal lines, but he did know that Abraham Friedenberg had on several 
occasions taken goods to the South from Nashville, and had seen him in 
Murfreesborough and Chattanooga with them, and he knew that they were 
the goods which he had seen loaded into a* two-horse wagon, furnished 
vrith a false bottom, at the store of B. F. Shields & Co., in Nashville, and ho 



492 " ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

was afterwards told by Friedenberg that they had been sold by him in 
Chattanooga and Atlanta. These were the only persons engaged in contra- 
band trade of whom he had any knowledge. 

Having thus fully revealed these matters, the boy was released, his money 
returned to him, and himself sent North, The information given by him 
was at once improved by the arrest of Keller, at whose house was found 
and seized a large amount of dry goods and clothing. Keller, upon his 
examination, stated that about five weeks previously he had come to the city 
to sell some butter, and while at the market was approached by two Jews 
named Friedenberg, who inquired where he lived. On being informed, they 
asked him if he could not take out to his house some goods for them, for which 
service they would pay him well. After some conversation, and on being 
assured that there was no danger in it, he agreed to take them out, and came 
the next day, as requested, with his wagon for them. The Friedenbergs 
loaded the wagon with a large quantity of hoop-skirts and several small 
boxes and bundles of unknown goods. These he carried to his house, and 
the same evening another Jew, named Besthofi", came out with a new wagon, 
drawn by two mules. Stopping there a few minutes, he went down the road, 
and, returning the next morning, informed Keller that he had taken down a 
load of goods in that wagon, concealed by a false bottom. He then requested 
the Jew to take the goods from his house, or he would throw them out into 
the yard. Besthoif said he would come back and get them on his return 
from the city in an hour or so, — which he did, — loading them into the same 
wagon which he had with him on the day previous, and giving him at the 
same time an order on Friedenberg, written in Hebrew, for his pay. This 
order was presented the next day, and the amount — five hundred dollars — 
promptly paid by Friedenberg, who remarked that they would make fifteen 
thousand dollars on that load. There were three Friedenbergs, all of whom 
were in the habit of going out on the same pass which Besthoff had used, 
and which was in one of the Friedenbergs' name. Whoever used it would 
leave it at Keller's house, and he would take it back to town for the others. 

At one of his visits to these Friedenbergs they induced him to take three 
boxes of gray caps out and go with them to Murfreesborough, saying that he 
could sell them there for five or six dollars each, and that they would divide 
the profits with him. About ten days before Christmas he went with the 
caps to Murfreesborough, where he found great difliculty in disposing of them 
at all, but finally closed them out for one dollar each, in Confederate scrip, 
which realized about seventy cents to the dollar. Here he met Besthoff and 
Friedenberg, the latter of whom informed him that he was then going to 
Atlanta, but that he would soon return, and would then want more goods 
brought through the lines, Eeturning on Christmas day, Keller went 
immediately to see the other Friedenbergs, who told him that they would 
furnish him some goods to take out and sell, which would pay a great profit. 
The arrangement proposed was that he should pay them the cost-price of the 
goods when he took them to his house, and that they would pay him his 
money back, and fifty per cent, in addition, when the goods should be delivered 



A NEST OF NASHVILLE SMUGGLERS. 493 

to their partner, the other Friedenberg, on his return from the South. To 
these terms he agreed, and took out the goods which were found at his house 
and seized there, and for which he had advanced over nine hundred dollars. 
Abraham Friedenberg returned to Nashville, but, instead of coming for the 
goods, as promised, went to Louisville, and the other Friedenbergs then saia 
that they would send somebody else to get them ; but before they could do so 
their arrangements were broken in upon by his arrest and the seizure of the 
goods. The Friedenbergs and Besthoff were all partners, — they had told 
him so, many times ; also that they were smugglers, and did nothing else. 
The goods which he carried out were sometimes taken under a quilt or 
blanket in his market-wagon ; or sometimes he would put the boxes under 
bundles of oats ; and when they were large he would throw manure over 
them. He made five trips to bring out the goods, for which they paid him 
the five hundred dollars. At the time he was about to start for Murfrees- 
borough with the caps he did not keep it a secret, and about that time he met 
one Salzkotter, who requested him to say to his partner Schwab, if he met 
him, not to come back, for if he did the Yankees would catch him. Best- 
hofi" had told him that this same Schwab had made twenty thousand dollars 
on hats which he had smuggled through the Federal lines in feather beds, 
and that he and his firm — Schwab & Co. — had been engaged in the same 
kind of business ever since the war began. 

Keller also related the history of his acquaintance with the boy Wilson, 
whose real name, as he had been informed by Friedenberg, was Solomon 
Guthman. This did not difier much from the boy's own stateihent, but con- 
tained the additional information that Wilson was connected with the Frie- 
denbergs, always procured his goods from them, and seemed to be one of 
them. He had made five thousand dollars, he boasted to Keller, by smug- 
gling goods through the lines, and he was now going on to Philadelphia to 
buy another stock, on which he would make five thousand dollars more. 
Keller stated, in conclusion, that he was a vegetable gardener, and had been 
doing well before the rebellion, but had found it impossible to make a living 
since. He had been driven into this business through sheer poverty and 
ignorance : he had no wish or design to injure the Government, — was not in 
favor of the rebellion. By the seizure of the goods he had lost every thing 
he had ; and, as they did not really belong to him, but to the Friedenbergs, 
by whom he had been inveigled into carrying them to his house, he hoped 
that the military authorities would force them to refund him his money, or 
a portion of it, at least. 

In consideration of all the circumstances, and believing that Keller did not 
engage in the business for the purpose of aiding the rebellion, but rather 
through actual fear of coming to want, and that he might be made of some 
.service to the Government, it was proposed to him that he should turn 
around and assist in developing the case against the Friedenbergs and Best- 
hoff, so as to secure their punishment and the confiscation of their goods 
If he would do this, and work faithfully, he was promised that he should 
not be a loser by it, but should be remunerated for the money he had 



494 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

advanced to tlie Friedenbergs. Keller gladly accepted the offer, and -went 
to -work at once, following the matter up diligently and faithfully, and since 
then lias been almost constantly employed in the secret service. Through 
his instrumentality Isaac and Mike Friedenberg were arrested, and some 
nine hundred dollars in money, besides personal property, as -watches, &c. 
were found upon their persons and seized. Diligent search was made for 
Abraham Friedenberg and Besthoff; but they had gone to Louisville to 
purchase goods, and, by some means hearing of the affair, made good their 
escape. At the same time a large stock of goods, valued at between four 
and five thousand dollars, stored in the auction and commission house of B. 
F. Shields & Co., was seized as the property of the Friedenbergs. Isaac 
Friedenberg, when arrested, had little to say, further than to admit that he 
had sold the goods to Keller, but claiming that he did not know that the 
latter intended to smuggle them through the lines, though he did know that 
Keller had previously taken goods to Murfreesborough to sell. Mike 
Friedenberg, however, made quite a lengthy statement, which resulted in 
the arrest of still other parties, and was in brief somewhat thus : — 

In March, 1857, he went to Columbus, Georgia, and remained there, 
engaged in merchandizing with his brother Isaac, until March, 1862, when 
he came to Nashville. The reason of his leaving Columbus was that he did 
not wish to enter the rebel army, and could not longer remain there without 
doing so. He had not been back since leaving there, and his business there 
was still in an unsettled condition. His brother Isaac was at that time in 
Kichmond, whither he had gone when the Federal army occupied Nash- 
ville, and had written to him as he was about leaving Columbus to stop at 
Nashville and take charge of the balance of a stock of goods which he had 
left there. This he did, moving them first into the store of a Mr. Stein, and, 
on the lattor's leaving for New York, to the store of Shields & Co., where 
he began selling them out. On the 16th of June, 1862, he was taken sick, 
and for two months was unable to attend to any business. Just before this, 
however, Isaac had returned from Richmond, and proceeded immediately to 
New York to buy more goods. He returned, however, without any, and 
Mike, on recovering, went himself to New York, and remained there two 
months, when he again came to Nashville, reaching there on the 28th of No- 
vember, 1862. In the mean time his brother Isaac had bought of two parties 
in Nashville a considerable stock of boots, shoes, hats, caps, and gentlemen's 
furnishing goods, which he then had in Shields's store, and which he said 
belonged to himself, Mike, and their nephew, Abraham Friedenberg. After 
his return from New York, Mike himself purchased from A. Laob & Co. a 
lot of hats, which were still in the store of Shields & Co. when seized by the 
police. Abraham Friedenberg was in partnership with himself — Isaac — 
eome five or six weeks, and then left them and went with Besthoff; but what 
they did he did not know. One day Abraham Friedenberg came to him and 
wished him to buy him a wagon and two mules, which he did, paying for 
them four hundred and seventy dollars. The next day Besthoff came and 
requested him to get Mr. Smith, a carpenter, to make a false bottom to the 



A NEST OP NASHVILLE SMUGGLERS. 495 

•wagon. He said Mr. Smith knew all about making it, and that when it 
was finished he — Besthoff — would call for it. Smith agreed to make, and 
did make, the false bottom, as he desired, and Friedenberg afterwards saw it 
in the wagon. Keller's arrangement for carrying goods out to his house 
was entirely with Besthoff and Abraham Friedenberg. He carried out five or 
six loads for them, and Abraham Friedenberg furnished the five hundred 
dollars to pay him. Besthoff and A. Friedenberg loaded their own wagon — 
the one with the false bottom — twice, and went with it into the country, 
where they remained until December 28, when they returned, and in two 
or three days afterwards went North. Through them he became acquainted 
with Keller, and sold him seventy-four dozen fine combs, which cost one 
dollar and fifty cents per dozen, for two and a half or three dollars a dozen, 
eighteen pounds of flax thread, and some other goods. 

This testimony of Mike Friedenberg led to the arrest of John L. Smith, 
who made the false bottoms, and who stated, on examination, that he was a 
carpenter, and had a shop on the corner of Lime and High Streets. In the 
latter part of February or about the 1st of March, 1862, a Mr. Salzkotter, of 
the firm of Schwab & Co., merchants of Nashville, called at the shop and re- 
quested him to make a false bottom in a light spring-wagon, and afterwards 
sent the wagon to the shop, where the bottom was made and put in. The 
way in which it was made was this. Side-pieces were put on each side of the 
bed inside, and one through the centre, the whole length, and on these pieces 
planed boards were secured, leaving between the two floors a vacant space of 
from two and a half to three inches. When finished, Salzkotter himself came 
after the wagon and took it away, but neither at this nor at any other time 
did he say for what purpose he intended to use it. Since then he had made five 
or six similar ones for other parties, all of whom had been introduced by this 
same firm of Schwab & Co. He objected to making them at first, but finally was 
induced to do so, though he knew it to be wrong. Salzkotter paid him five 
dollars for the job ; Haas, the only one of the other parties whose name he 
could remember, paid him ten, and the remainder fifteen dollars. After the 
wagon for Salzkotter was finished, and before he took it away, he sent to the 
shop a dray loaded with boxes, the contents of which he said he wished to 
pack into his wagon. Smith gave him the key of the shop ; and during the 
night they were unloaded and packed, — as the wagon was gone in the morning, 
and the boxes were there empty. Mr. Smith did not know what was in 
these boxes ; but Mahlon Jones, one of his workmen, testified that he helped 
remove them from the dray, and, in so doing, one of them fell upon the 
ground and was broken open, exposing the contents, which were quinine 
and other medicines. 

It was now Salzkotter's turn to receive the attention of the police, as a 
smuggler and dealer in false-bottomed wagon-beds ; and some_ three or four 
thousand dollars' worth of liquors and domestics were seized as belonging to 
him. He was immensely indignant, of course, and unblushingly endeavored 
to lie out of the scrape in which he found himself. When questioned, he 
stated most positively that he had been keeping books for Schwab & Co. in 



490 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

Nashville for three years, until some three months previous, when the store 
was closed. He had never been in partnership with Schwab. The firm — 
composed of Schwab and his brother-in-law, H. Dreyfoos — owed him some 
four thousand to five thousand dollars, for which he held their notes. 
Schwab and his partner had both left the city, and he believed them to be 
in Knoxville, where they had a branch house. They had left him about 
one thousand dollars' worth of liquors to sell for them, and he had sold all 
but about two hundred dollars' worth. He also had some two hundred 
dollars' worth of liquors of his own, which they had given him in settle- 
ment. He had never had made, for himself or anybody else, a wagon, car- 
riage, or vehicle of any description, with a false bottom, and he did not know 
anybody who had. He had never bought any wagon for himself or other 
person, nor had he been, directly or indirectly, connected with anybody in 
running goods through the lines to the enemy or to any disloyal persons. 
Schwab & Co. had had considerable trade with the South, but it was all before 
the war. Their books and papers were left with him to settle up, and he 
was to pay himself out of the proceeds. He never knew of Schwab having 
had a wagon or carriage made for carrying goods through the lines. He 
knew Mr. Smith, the carpenter, but had never visited his shop for the 
purpose of having a false bottom made to a wagon or other vehicle. Of the 
other parties who had testified concerning them he knew nothing. When 
asked by Colonel Truesdail if he would make oath to this statement, he rose 
from his chair and said he would. The colonel, however, would not allow 
him thus to perjure himself, but immediately called up the witnesses Smith 
and Jones, who reiterated in his presence their former statements, and 
identified him as the man whom they called Salztotter and who had several 
times been to the shop for the purpose of having the false bottoms made. 

Mike Friedenberg was then called in, and, in the presence of Salzkotter, 
stated that his nephew, Abraham Friedenberg, told him to go to Mr. Salz- 
kotter's store and inquire of him who could be hired to make a false bottom 
to a wagon. Accordingly, he went to Salzkotter one Saturday, some five or 
six weeks before, and made the inquiry, to which the latter replied that he 
would introduce him to a Mr. Smith who would make it, but that Smith 
would not make it if he went to him alone. After supper he called on Salz- 
kotter by invitation, and together they went to Smith's, to whom he was in- 
troduced, and with whom, in Salzkotter's presence, he made an arrange- 
ment for the making of the false bottom. This testimony being rather 
damaging, Salzkotter endeavored to weaken it by a cross-examination ; but 
Friedenberg still persisted in his statement, and further said that the wagons 
were made for the express purpose of smuggling. 

The complicity of Salzkotter in the wagon-bed transaction was now fully 
established ; and witnesses were next examined to prove that both he and 
the house of Schwab & Co. had been extensively engaged in smuggling 
goods through to the rebels. Edward Speckel testified that he lived in 
Nashville, knew Salzkotter well, and that the latter had told him some five 
months previously that he had been smuggling goods from Louisville to 



A NEST OF NASHVILLE SMUGGLERS. 497 

Nashville. They were principally quinine and other medicines ; and he had 
made eighteen hundred dollars on one trip. The goods were taken by a car- 
riage to a way-station some distance from Louisville, and thence shipped by 
rail to Nashville. Near Louisville he just escaped detection by saying that 
the trunks contained only the clothing belonging to a family who were to 
join him at the station. Salzkotter said that his father-in-law, Schwab, had 
taken the goods South from Nashville and sold them, he being a partner in 
the transaction. He further said that he had been South himself before this 
occurred, and that he had cleared eighteen hundred dollars by the trip, — of 
which he had one half and Schwab the other. He had often remarked, 
laughingly, that they could make more money than the Union men, and 
seemed to make no secret of his sending goods to the South. 

David Kuhn, who had lived in Knoxville eight years, testified that he 
knew the firm of Schwab & Co. Salzkotter was connected with them in some 
way, but he did not know whether he had an interest in the store or not. 
In Knoxville they sold liquors, cigars, and notions, but they had closed their 
store some eight months before. It was the general belief, and he knew, 
that the house was engaged in smuggling goods through the Federal lines. 
He knew that they had brought goods from Nashville, but did not know 
that they had brought them in wagons with false bottoms. Both Schwab 
and Dreyfoos had told him they had smuggled goods through since they 
closed their store, and in October, 18G2, Salzkotter came to Knoxville in a 
light spring-wagon, with goods, as was believed. His reputation was that 
of a smuggler. 

William Mliller, who was formerly a clerk for Schwab & Co., corroborated 
Kuhn's testimony, and added that it was common report that Schwab & Co. 
and Salzkotter were in the habit of running goods through the lines by 
means of wagons having a false bottom. While clerking with them, he had 
heard the firm say that they were smuggling medicines and other goods 
through the lines ; and he knew of pistols and knives having been sent to 
the Knoxville house of Schwab & Co. early in 1862. Salzkotter went to 
Knoxville in the summer of 1862 ; and it was the general report that he had 
taken goods with him. It was his impression that Salzkotter was a silent 
partner in the house, on account of having failed in business at Knoxville. 

Salzkotter's case was now hopeless; and he seems at last to have given it 
up himself, as he made no further efibrts to avert punishment by holding out 
against evidence so strong and positive. His liquors were turned over to 
the United States Marshal for libel and confiscation in the United States 
District Court, his domestic goods were put to immediate use in the hospi- 
tals, and he was sent to the Alton Military Prison, but has since been re- 
leased, and is now again in Nashville. His money — of which he had some 
twenty-three thousand dollars — was not found, though long and thorough 
search was instituted for it. He admitted, however, afterwards, that the 
officers came within an inch or two of the place where it was secreted. In 
the case of the Friedenbcrgs, Isaac was imprisoned in irons for some time ; 
but finally he and Mike were paroled not to come south of the Ohio River 

32 



498 ARMY POLICE RECORD, 

again during; the war. Their goods seized in the act of smuggling wera 
confiscated at once, and those in store at Shields & Co.'s were turned over to 
the United States Marshal for libel and confiscation in the District Court. 
Their watches and money, after deducting enough to repay Keller, were 
returned to them. Smith, the carpenter, was released without punishment. 
Thus ended this remarkable case, or rather series of cases, all resulting 
from the trifling incident of a boy jumping from a buggy in which he was 
riding, and escaping to the woods. It disclosed a vast network of fraud and 
villainy, and resulted in the punishment of three persons, the pardon and 
subsequent good behavior of numbers of others, and the confiscation of some 
ten thousand dollars' worth of goods. But, more and better than all this, it 
demonstrated the sleepless vigilance of the Government in the discovery of 
guilt, however secret and well planned, and the heavy hand of justice not 
yet too weak to visit upon the violators of its laws the full penalty so de- 
servedly prescribed. It taught a lesson which could not but be heeded, 
and disclosed a power which must be respected and feared, if not loved. 



The Hollow-Heeled Boot. 



In the earlier days of the rebellion there lived in Southeastern Missouri 
one Ogilvie Byron Young. He was a wild, graceless scamp, rich in the 
blood of his ancestors, but poor in purse. To the pride of Lucifer he added 
the courage of Falstaff and the honor of lago. A scion of Virginia's aristo- 
cracy, he deemed himself a statesman from birth and an orator by nature. 
Showy in manner and superficial in attainments, he could act the accom- 
plished gentleman or the bullying braggart as best suited the occasion. 
Vain, reckless, and boastful, he was scorned as a visionary enthusiast by 
some, feared as a bold, bad man by others, but admired as a genuine 
Southern cavalier of the old school by those who knew him least. Wildly 
imaginative, but immensely unpractical, he plunged madly into the first 
waves of rebellion, and, while Sterling Price was yet a Union general and 
Claiborne F. Jackson a loyal Governor, dared to avow and advocate opinions 
of the most ultra-Southern character. Fine-drawn theoretical arguments 
on the right and duty of secession were spread before the people of the State, 
in column after column of letters published in newspapers and to which 
was attached the full signature, "Ogilvie Byron Young." The rough back- 
woodsmen of his county were momentarily swayed by his presumptuous 
clamor, and he was sent to the first Missouri State Convention. Here he 
was the only member that took strong ground in favor of secession per se, 
gaining thereby not a little notoriety. The State did not secede ; but Ogilvie 
Byron Young did, and for some months he was not so much as heard from. 

In the fall of 1861 he was arrested at the Spencer House, Cincinnati, aa 
a spy. In due time an indictment and trial followed; but, though there was 



THE HOLLOW-HEELEB BOOT. 499 

abundant evidence of guilt, he escaped conviction by means of some tech- 
nical informality in the proceedings. He was ordered to leave the city, 
however, and did so. In the following spring he was found in Covington, 
Kentucky, under an assumed name, aiding and abetting the rebels by fur- 
nishing information, and was again arrested. He had been cautioned by 
some one, it would seem ; for there was found nothing upon him in the way 
of papers or letters to warrant his detention, and he was again released, to 
again disappear from sight for some months. 

In November, 1862, he is again met with, in Nashville, where he had been 
for some weeks as a paroled prisoner, but acting all the while in his old 
capacity of smuggler and spy. In this business he seems to have had 
remarkable success, until his career was fortunately arrested by a com- 
bination of circumstances and the watchful shrewdness of the army police. 
About the last of that month Young was introduced to a gentleman 
who represented himself as a hostage for the return of certain loyal Missis- 
sippians captured at luka and treated by Price as traitors, contrary to the 
terms of the cartel between the Federal and Confederate Governments. At 
first he was shy and suspicious, but was finally convinced that his new 
acquaintance was really what he purported to be, and heartily entered into 
all his plans for the advancement of the Confederate cause. As his confi- 
dence grew stronger, he remarked that he had been of more benefit to the 
South, as a spy, than any brigade of rebel soldiers. He had encouraged de- 
sertions in the Federal camps, and made out paroles in the names of Morgan 
and Kirby Smith. The business was getting a little dangerous now, how- 
ever, and he should get beyond the lines as soon as possible. He would 
have gone long ago, only that he had expected to be saved the trouble and 
expense of the trip by the fall of Nashville. 

Our luka hostage then informed him that Mrs. Major Ranney — wife of 
Major Ranney of the 6th Texas Regiment — was in the city, under his 
charge, and just returned from Europe, whither she had been on diplomatic 
business for the Confederate Government. She had in her possession very 
important despatches, and was anxious to get safely through the lines with 
them. Young said, in reply, that he would bring his influence to bear upon 
the army officials in her favor, but in case she should be searched it would 
be well to provide for such a contingency. There was, he said, in the city 
a man by the name of Thompson, ostensibly a citizen, but really a rebel 
lieutenant in Bragg's army, and now acting as a spy. He had made the trip 
through the lines ten or twelve times, and could do it again. He was now 
engaged in drawing a map of the fortifications around Nashville and pro- 
curing information as to the numbers of the troops, &c., which should be 
forthcoming in due season. These secret despatches of Mrs, Ranney's, 
together with this map and other papers, could be hidden in the heel of a 
boot, which would be made for them by a bootmaker of the city in the 
employ of the Confederate Government. His name was C. J. Zeutzschell, 
and his shop was on Union Street. 

This plan was agreed to, and Young was to assist in the execution of it ; 



500 ARMY POLICE KECORD. 

in return for which, he was to be placed in a high position at Richmond 
Young's reputation, however, was not of the best, and the bootmaker would 
do nothing for him, when called upon, without first making inquiries among 
his friends and consulting with our hostage, for whom the boots were 
wanted. 

Accordingly, Zeutzschell came to his room one evening and said that 
Young had been to his house and wished him to make a pair of boots and to 
secrete important documents in them so as to defy detection. He had no 
confidence in Young's honor, and did not wish to do it for him. He knew 
him as identified with the Confederates, indeed, but he was a bad man, low 
in his habits and associates, never had any money, &c. He (Zeutzschell) 
had been inquiring of the friends of the South — undoubted secessionists — 
concerning him (our luka hostage), and was convinced that he was a gentle- 
man and a true Southerner. He would do any thing to promote the cause, — 
money was no object, — ^he would lay down his life for it. If Young could be 
thrown ofi" the track, he would make the boots and secrete in them a map of 
the fortifications about Nashville. His brother-in-law, Harris, would go out 
and see if any new ones had been erected. If not, he had a perfect plan of 
them in his head, to prove which he immediately sat down and drafted one. 
He remarked that he had recently sent several such to General Morgan. He 
had made the boots for all the spies in the same way, and not one had ever 
been detected. He had sent valuable information in a common pipe. 

"Can you get a pass for your man?" asked our hostage. "Certainly," 
was the reply ; " as many as you like. There is a German at head-quarters 
who steals blank passes for me, and I fill them up myself. I give him 
whiskey for them." 

He would like to go South, too, he said, in conclusion. He could describe 
the fortifications so much better than in a map. 

Both parties being satisfied, an agreement for the boots was made. Zeutz- 
schell was to get the exact distances of the defences, the number and dispo- 
sition of the troops, &c., and secrete them, together with Mrs. Ranney's 
despatches, in the heel of one of the boots. This he did, according to 
promise: the boots were made and delivered on the evening appointed. 
Instead of reaching Generals Bragg and Morgan, as intended, however, the 
maps, papers, boots, owner, maker, and spy, suddenly found themselves in 
the hands of the army police, much to the astonishment and chagrin of all 
parties concerned. Zeutzschell and Young were sent to the military prison 
at Alton. 



THE PSEUDO " SANDERS." 501 



The Psendo "Sanders." 

Prominent among those thronging the head-quarters of Brigadier-General 
Boyle, in the city of Louisville, one morning in November, 1862, might have 
been noticed a bright, handsome woman, who seemed exceedingly anxious 
for the success of some suit in which she was engaged. Her dress and 
manner indicated that she belonged to the higher walks of life, but other- 
wise there was nothing in her conduct or appearance by which a careless 
observer would distinguish her from the hundreds of others who daily gather 
at the office of a commanding general, seeking favors as numerous and 
diverse as the applicants themselves. The practised eye, however, could 
easily discern certain suspicious circumstances attaching to her and suggest- 
ive of the idea that beneath all this pleasant exterior there might be an 
under-current of deceit and treachery. But her story was plausible, her 
manners winning, her conversation sprightly and interesting. The impres- 
sion made by her upon all with whom she came in contact was in the 
highest degree favorable, and it seemed both ungallant and unjust to harbor 
the shadow of a suspicion that she was otherwise than a high-minded, honor- 
able woman, v^ho would scorn any of the petty meannesses of such frequent 
occurrence within our lines. 

It subsequently transpired that her name was Ford, that her husband was 
a Baptist clergyman, — a man of ability and reputation, formerly editor of a 
religious paper in that city, and now representative in the Confederate Con- 
gress from that district of Kentucky. JShe herself belonged to one of the 
first families of the city, and moved in the highest circles of an aristocratic 
society. To a natui-ally brilliant mind, strengthened and polished by a 
thorough education, were added the ease and grace of an accomplished 
Southern woman. In the palmy days of peace she had been the centre of a 
bright galaxy of wit and beauty, dispensing to her admirers a bounteous 
hospitality, as genial as it was welcome. Now all was changed. These 
social gatherings had long been discontinued, the family circle was broken 
and scattered, her husband was a fugitive from his home, and she was seek- 
ing from the Federal authorities permission to pass southward beyond their 
lines and join him in his exile. 

Lounging about the same head-quarters, on the same morning, with seem- 
ingly no particular business or present occupation save to watch the move- 
ments of others, was a quiet-looking man, who now and then cast sharp, 
quick, and stealthy glances at this Mrs. Ford, apparently regarding her with 
much interest. Presently, seeing her somewhat apart from the crowd, he 
approached, and, in a respectful, diffident manner, engaged her in conversa- 
tion, which continued for some time, and, from the animated character it 
gradually assumed, was evidently upon some subject in which both parties 
were deeply interested. That it was of a confidential and private nature 
was easily inferred from the caution maintained during its continuance. It 
seems that, after some commonplace talk, the stranger informed her that 
C 



502 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

he .was not what he then seemed, but in reality Captain Denver, of the Con- 
federate army, visiting Louisville as a spy upon the movements of the 
Federal army in that portion of Kentucky. Highly gratified at this intelli- 
gence, the lady became very friendly, and at once invited the captain to visit 
her house. The invitation so warmly given could not be declined without 
apparent rudeness, and so was accepted, but with, as the lady thought, a 
rather unnecessary and suspicious hesitation. 

Whatever unwillingness the captain may have outwardly exhibited in 
accepting the proffered invitation, he was not slow in availing himself of 
its present privileges and prospective pleasures. Calling- soon afterwards at 
the residence indicated, he was cordially received by the family, whom he 
found strong in their sympathy with the South. Conversation naturally 
turned upon the war, and by a warm espousal of the Confederate cause he 
soon succeeded in ingratiating himself into their confidence, and, by way of 
showing his confidence in them, revealed his intention of presently escaping 
through the Federal lines to the nearest Confederate command, taking with 
him as large an amount of quinine, morphine, and other medicines as he 
could safely carry. Confidence thus implicitly reposed in the acquaintance of 
but a few hours could not be otherwise than pleasing to the fair hostess ; and 
surely a reciprocal confidence would be little enough expression of gratitude 
in return. It was not safe ; it was not wise ; but " there can be no harm in 
trusting so true and firm a Southerner as Captain Denver," thought Mrs. 
Ford. 

It was her purpose too, she said, to smuggle through the lines large quan- 
tities of medicine, and at the same time carry to the Confederate authori- 
ties valuable information of Federal movements and plans. Her husband 
was in the South, and she apprehended no difficulty in procuring a pass 
allowing her to go to him, so soon as the circumstances of her case could be 
brought to the personal notice of General Boyle. The enterprise in which 
both were about to engage now became the exclusive topic of a lengthy con- 
versation, in the course of which the captain remarked that he had not suffi- 
cient money to make as extensive purchases as he wished, and was desirous 
of assistance from the friends of the cause in Louisville. Mrs. Ford thought 
this need not trouble him. She could arrange it to his satisfaction, and 
appointed an interview for the next morning, at which she hoped to report 
the complete success of her efforts. The evening passed rapidly, and the 
captain took his departure, leaving his entertainers highly pleased with him 
as a valuable acquaintance and colaborer in the cause of the South. 

The same evening the captain chanced to meet in the office of the Gait 
House an old friend. Dr. Rogers, surgeon on the staff of General Sterling 
Price, a paroled prisoner, and now, by order of General Rosecrans, on his 
way to Cairo to report to General Tuttle for transportation by the first boat 
to Vicksburg. According to the terms of the cartel agreed upon by the 
Federal and Confederate authorities, surgeons were held as non-combatants 
and not subject to exchange; but the doctors, with others, found in the 
hospital at luka, had been detained by General Rosecrans, in retaliation for 



THE PSEUDO "SAND-ERS." 503 

the arrest and imprisonment by General Price of certain Union soldiers i& 
Mississippi, and as hostages for their return. Their release had been 
followed by his; and he was n w, as stated, en route for Cairo. At their 
meeting the next morning, Captain Denver mentioned the doctor to Mrs. 
Ford as his friend and an intelligent and accomplished gentleman, with 
whom she would no doubt be highly pleased, at the same time remarking 
that he was on his way South, and it would be greatly to their advan- 
tage to go thither under his protection. To this she readily assented, and 
desired the captain to procure her an interview with the doctor. This not 
very difficult task was speedily accomplished, and the doctor called upon 
her that evening. Some time having passed in conversational pleasantry, 
the doctor adverted to the carrying of contraband goods, and spoke dis- 
couragingly of its policy, saying that any thing of the kind would be a 
violation of his parole and might lead to his arrest and imprisonment. 
With apparent sincerity, Mrs. Ford promptly replied that though an enemy 
of the Federal Government she was an honorable enemy, and would engage 
in no enterprise to which the military authorities would refuse their 
sanction. 

The doctor seemed satisfied, and did not revert to the subject, but, 
instead, imparted to her, in strict confidence, a secret of the utmost import- 
ance. It will be remembered that some mouths previous to this, George N. 
Sanders had successfully escaped from the rebel States and made his way 
to England for the purpose of negotiating a Confederate loan. High hopes 
of success, on his part, were entertained, and his return was anxiously 
looked for by the rebels. Mrs. Ford, with her whole heart and soul in the 
cause, was more sanguine even than her most sanguine friends ; and imagi- 
nation can scarcely conceive the bright colors with which she painted the 
future of the embryo Confederacy. Who, then, shall describe her surprise 
and joy when told by the doctor that their friend Captain Denver was no 
other than this same George N. Sanders, who had eluded the guard at the 
Suspension Bridge and was now on his return to the Confederate capital ? 
She was also informed that his mission had been completely successful, — that 
the loau had been taken by the Rothschilds, and that Sanders had in 
possession the evidence and documents connected therewith, all written in 
cipher. She was cautioned against hinting a word of it to anybody, or even 
intimating to Sanders that she knew him in any other character than as 
Captain Denver. He would accompany them to Vicksburg in his present 
disguise, and, until that point was reached, safety required that it should be 
penetrated by no one, however friendly to the South. The interests at stake 
were too vast to be hazarded by exposure to a mischance, which a single 
careless word might bring upon them. In case, however, he should be 
suspected, it would be their business to assist him in the secretion of his 
papers. 

The arrangements for the journey were discussed, and the suggestion of 
the doctor warmly espoused by Mrs. Ford. Her eyes sparkled with delight 
as she asked a thousand questions about Sanders : how he had managed to 



504 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

escape the vigilance of the Federals ; by what means he had accomplished 
his mission ; what was the state of feeling in Europe, the prospects of recog- 
nition, and so on. The doctor answered as best he could, and at length 
took his leave to make final preparations to start the next evening. Passes 
were obtained, tickets bought, trunks checked, berths secured in the 
sleeping-car. Every thing bade fair for the successful termination of the 
enterprise. The night was passed comfortably in sleep, from which they 
were wakened, on arriving at Cairo, to find themselves under arrest. Denver 
and Rogers were indignant, but Mrs. Ford trembled like an aspen-leaf, 
and had the earth opened under her feet, revealing a bottomless chasm in 
which she must inevitably be buried alive, she could not have been more 
astonished and horrified. She could find neither tongue nor heart to utter 
a word in defence, and was led away in silence. A personal examination 
brought to light a number of letters and a large quantity of quinine concealed 
about her clothes. The trunks were found to contain similar contraband 
goods and much information of value to the rebels. Grieving will not 
restore lost opportunities, nor bring to the surface sunken treasures : else 
had not the hopes of Mrs. Ford been thus ruthlessly dashed to the ground, 
her letters and goods fallen into the hands of her enemies, and the riches of 
the Confederate loan taken to themselves wings and flown away. 

After a protracted investigation, Mrs. Ford was sent South, — since which 
time she has engaged in the business of publishing a book giving an account 
of her experience and treatment under Federal rule. Captain Denver, alias 
George N. Sanders, alias Conklin, it is needless to say, was simply a member 
of the detective police of the Army of the Cumberland, and Dr. Rogers, of 
Price's stafi", also a member of the same corps. 



Dr. Hudson the Smuggler, etc. 

The stroller about Nashville and its vicinity, in some of his more extended 
walks, may have noticed, on the summit of a considerable elevation about 
three hundred yards north of the Penitentiary, a large white house, half 
hidden in a beautiful grove of sugar-maples. The broad grounds in front, 
with their well-filled flower-beds, winding walks, and neatly trimmed shrub- 
bery, tell of wealth and taste combined. Apart from the business portion 
of the town, with its constant hum, the air is redolent of perfume. Even 
the winds, seemingly, pause to dally in luxurious idleness with the cedar- 
boughs, and from the birds in the heavy-leaved magnolias are heard the 
notes of gladness. Surely here, if anywhere, under the shade and in the 
quiet of these magnificent trees, one could spend a life of happy content, 
alike ignorant and careless of the noisy world beyond. 

In character with the house and its surroundings was the family that 
dwelt within, a few short months ago. Its head — Dr. J. R. Hudson —was a 



DR. HUDSON THE SMUGGLER. 505 

large, stalwart man, whose whitened hair and beard would have indicated 
that fifty-odd years of life had weighed none too lightly upon him, had not 
the signs of present comfort been visible in every feature of his cheerful 
face. And, indeed, he had but few of the world's troubles to breast. The 
possessor of an elegant residence, and the proprietor of extensive iron- 
works near Harpeth Shoals, with three thousand acres of land attached 
thereto, and the owner of slaves and other property, he could now well afford 
to sit beneath his own vine and fig-tree, secure in the full possession of his 
ample fortune, and look out almost unconcernedly upon the wild waves of 
rebellion's stormy sea. His wife — a comely and interesting lady — was much 
younger and smaller than himself, but not less the embodiment of an un- 
troubled and self-satisfied mind. A bright, keen eye told of acutenesa 
and penetration, to which even her liege lord, physically great as he was, 
must bend the knee of inferiority. Three daughters, and a son, the youngest 
of all, constituted the family then at home. Two of the daughters were young 
ladies grown, and the third was just on the verge of womanhood : they were 
attractive in feature and manner, and possessed of many of those graceful 
accomplishments which mark the perfect woman. 

To such a family, dwelling amid such scenes of beauty, and in the enjoy- 
ment of all that earthly riches could give, it would seem that the future 
could not well be otherwise than an unruffled sea of happiness. But life, 
like an ocean-voyage, is full of uncertainties. And so with this household. 
At the very moment in which we have looked in upon them, they were 
treading upon the threshold of a great disaster. But we will not anticipate, 
further than to say that the story about to be told is a striking illustration of 
that wild spirit which will peril all the blessings and comforts of life to 
gratify a reckless malice and hate. 

One afternoon in the first week of January, 1863, the doctor was visited 
by a young lady, a Miss Roberta Samuels, a rebel sympathizer of Nashville, 
in company with a young man whom she introduced as one of Ashby'a 
cavalrymen and a Confederate spy. In the most gracious manner the 
doctor expressed his gratification at having such a guest under his roof. 
The call being one of mere introduction, the visitor took his leave after 
about an hour's conversation, in which his host somewhat guardedly ex- 
pressed sympathy for the Southern cause, and invited him to call again 
and often. In three or four days the spy called again, — this time in the 
morning, remaining until after dinner. The doctor, for some reason, was 
more communicative than on the previous visit, and, by way of showing; 
his hearty good will towards the Confederacy, related the story of his assisting 
some fourteen rebel prisoners to escape from the penitentiary at NashviUe 
through the Federal lines. On a very dark night, he said, they came to his 
house, where he secreted them until the way was clear, when he took them 
\nto the fields, pointed out the Federal picket-fires, and showed them 
where they could slip by in the darkness without being seen. By one of 
them — Samuel Y. Brown — he had also sent out a fine revolving rifle and 
nistol and various other articles. He turned to his visitor, and asked, — 



506 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

" Of what does your command stand In most need ?" 

"Pistols and ammunition," was the I'eply. "And it is the principal part 
of my business here to-day to make arrangements with you to get a supply 
and have them run through the lines. You can help me, can't you V 

"I am just the man to do it," said he, earnestly, clapping his hand on the 
knee of his companion. "How many can you manage to carry out? I can 
get you as many as you want." 

" I can get through with fifty, I think." 

"Well, I'll look around and see about them. The next time you come 
I'll let you know, and I doubt not it will be all right." 

The second day after, the doctor was again visited by this friend, who 
brought with him a Mr. Walker, whom he Introduced as a paroled Confede- 
rate prisoner. They were gladly welcomed, and presented to the family In 
the sitting-room. The doctor remarked that he had been too busy since the 
last call to do any thing about the pistols, but he hoped " to get to work at it 
soon." He interested himself also In Mr. AValker's case, and asked him 
if he did not wish to get away from Nashville by running through the lines, 
without waiting to be exchanged. 

" If you do," said he, confidently, " I can get you through any time you 
want to go. I can pass you out as one of the hands employed in my Iron- 
works down on the Cumberland River, or I can send you out as a carriage- 
driver or wood-chopper. I have passed out several in these ways ; and some- 
times I give a man an axe to go out to chop wood, and he quite forgets to 
come back." 

At this witticism all had a hearty laugh ; and a still more lengthy and 
confidential conversation ensued, developing, however, nothing materially 
difierent from the points already touched upon. Highly pleased, the party 
at length broke up, with the promise on the part of the two Confederates to 
call again In a week or ten days and make further arrangements about the 
pistols, &c. 

This appointment was kept according to agreement, — the two friends walk- 
ing out to the residence one cold, rainy evening. They found that the 
doctor had a visitor before them, — one Captain Redman, a Federal quarter- 
master. This, of course, precluded the further transaction of the business 
on which they came, and might have embarrassed a less politic man thaa 
Dr. Hudson. He met the difiiculty boldly. Introduced them to the captain 
as workmen from his Iron-works, questioned them as to afiairs there, 
asked them If they had passes to go back, talked to them as Union men, and 
took every occasion to mock an^ jeer at the rebels and their cause, slyly 
winking, however, the while, at the two Confederates. Accompanying them 
to the door, the doctor was told by the spy that he had just returned from 
the steamboat-burning expedition near Ilarpeth Shoals, and that the Con- 
federates were greatly in need of pistols ; they wanted fifty at once. 

"You shall have them," he exclaimed, shaking his hand energetically. 
" I have some Federal Government vouchers, to the amount of several 
hundred dollars ; I am expecting to get the money on them every day ; 



DR. HUDSON THE SMUGGLER. 507 

and with it I'll buy the pistols. When shall I meet you to gc and see 
about them 1" 

"I can't go at all. It will not do for me to be seen on the streets of Nash 
'ville/' was the reply. 

" Sure enough I But there's Mr. Walker, — he'll do just as well. I'll meet 
him to-morrow, at eleven o'clock, at McNairy's store in Nashville, for the 
purpose." 

This was agreed to, and the parties separated for the night. The next 
morning Hudson and Walker met, as proposed, and went directly to a gun- 
smith's shop on Deadrick Street, kept by one William Rear. Rear was in 
the front part of the shop when they entered, but, without a word being said, 
all three walked through to the back room. Here the doctor, without intro- 
ducing Walker, said, — 

" I want fifty pistols for a friend of mine who is going to run the lines." 

" I have but two," replied Rear, producing them. 

"What is the price of them?" 

"Twenty-five dollars apiece." 

"Well, I'll take them ; and I want you to get some more right away." 

Then, turning to Walker, he added, " I'll go out now and see if I can't get 
some from Captain Redman's clerk ; and I will leave a line here to-morrow 
morning, letting you know what I have done." 

The two then left the shop, leaving the pistols until more could be pro- 
cured. The doctor did not come to town the next day, as promised, nor the 
day after ; and Walker began to fear that something had happened to him. 
To set his mind at rest, he sent him a note, which was answered by the 
doctor in person the next morning, at Rear's shop. In reply to Walker's 
queries he said, — 

" I couldn't get any pistols, as the teamsters and soldiers from whom I 
expected to buy them were all gone. But I have something here that's 
pretty good, I think," exhibiting a bullet-mould made to run twelve at a 
time. 

" You had better have some balls run with it," remarked Walker, as he 
examined it carefully. 

" I'll have a peck of them run at once ; and if you can't get them out, I 
will- I can put them under sacks of bran, or I will keep them at the house 
to load the pockets of prisoners when they run the lines. I can find ways 
enough to get rid of them ; for Confederate spies and escaping prisoners 
always stop at my house. In fact, they make it their head-quarters," he 
said, laughingly, as he bade Walker " good-morning." 

The doctor saw no more of Walker after this, — which he accounted for by 
the supposition tliat he had made good his escape from Federal restraint. 
Other parties and other business soon claiming his attention, he thought but 
little about it, indeed. On the last Monday of January he was surprised 
and pleased by a visit from his old friend the Ashby cavalryman and spy, 
of whom he had lost sight for some time. The sitting-room being occupied 
by a Federal soldier, — there as a guard to protect his property, — the doctor 



508 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

and Ills guest retired to the parlor, where they had a long conversation 
touchizig the matter in which both were so deeply interested. The former 
was exceedingly communicative, and did most of the talking. He had re- 
cently secured, he said, through a Dr. Ford, a pair of fine revolving pistols ' 
and a revolving rifle, which his wife had taken out on the Charlotte pike to 
Mr. Charles Nichols, residing fifteen miles from Nashville, and there left them 
for a friend, who had doubtless got them by that time. He declared that 
his whole time and attention were devoted to assisting the Confederate cause, 
and that his principal object in taking the contract to furnish the Federal 
hospitals with milk was that, he might pass the lines at will with men and 
materials to aid the South. He dwelt particularly upon the fact, and 
boasted of it as a shrewd trick, that he was kind to the Federal sick and 
wounded in order to pass as a good Union man and thus accomplish more 
for the cause he was engaged in ; and it had been of great service to him ; 
for he had been enabled to get many rebel prisoners and friends through 
the lines on his own pass and in other ways. At one time he had on his 
back porch eight Confederate soldiers just escaped from the penitentiary, 
while he was entertaining four Federal officers in the house. His particular 
aim was to keep arms passing into the guerrilla region on the Cumberland, 
to harass steamboats and the rear of General Rosecrans's army, and thus 
keep alive the spirits of the rebels. Towards the close of this conversation 
he said to his visitor, — 

"My friend Dr. Ford is afraid of being arrested by the Nashville army 
police. Can you get him through the lines 1" 

"Yes, I can; but it will be in a risky way. He will have to run his 
chances, and may get shot," was the answer. 

" Never mind, then : I can easily do it myself." 

The spy now rising to take his leave, and intimating that he might not 
see him again, the doctor accompanied him to the porch, where he stood in 
his stocking-feet to say many parting words. When cautioned against it, 
he merely replied, — 

" I would be glad to walk to the State-House on my bare feet ten times, if 
I could advance the Southern Rights cause by so doing." 

Four days afterwards, on the morning of the 30th, a Mr. Newcomer called 
at the doctor's house and presented him a letter of introduction from J. 
Prior Smith, living twelve miles from Nashville, on the Hillsborough pike. 
His business, as stated in the letter, was to obtain assistance in procuring 
negroes, especially negro children, and running them through the lines 
to Smith, to be sold at the South. The enterprise, if successfully managed, 
would prove exceedingly profitable ; and the doctor entered heartily into the 
arrangement. Having unbounded confidence in Smith, he was not at all 
reserved in his expressions, but repeated much of what he had told to 
Walker and the Confederate spy, ending by making an appointment to 
meet Newcomer at Rear's shop, there to aid him in the purchase of 
pistols to carry South. Here they found five pistols, — the same which had 
been procured for Walker, but which were finally sold to Newcomer. Ttie 



DR. HUDSON THE SMUGGLER. 509 

doctor also purchased on his own account several pounds of Minie balls to 
send to the rebels. His wife, he said, was now beyond the lines for the pur- 
pose of taking out a fine horse which he had bought from a soldier for 9 
trifle. Newcomer advanced Rear money for the purchase of other pistols, 
Hudson promising to see that they were forthcoming at the proper time, and, 
just before leaving, made an arrangement with the latter to procure foi 
Smith the requisite number of negroes and run them through the lines. He 
was to procure a pass for his driver and servants to go out into the country 
for milk for the hospitals ; and in that way they could get the negroes out 
and such other articles as Newcomer wished to carry with him, — the latter 
acting as driver. (We should have stated, ere this, that Dr. Hudson had 
quite a herd of cows, and supplied milk to the Nashville hospitals, to a con- 
siderable amount, daily.) The doctor assured him that he could be relied on 
in every emergency, and that he would not hesitate to do any thing to assist 
the cause of the South. 

The next day Newcomer called again, and paid the doctor two hundred 
dollars, taking from him the following receipt: — 



" Received two hundred dollars of Mr. Newcomer, to be appropriated as 
distinctly understood, or accounted for on sight, or sooner. 

" J. R. Hudson. 
" January 31, 1863." 

The understanding referred to was that he should purchase pistols and 
ammunition to be carried South by Newcomer. The next day the doctor 
showed Newcomer the pistols, a double-barrel shot-gun, and a place which 
he called his arsenal, prepared by him for the express purpose of secreting 
arms whenever he should deem it necessary, and which, he said, would 
hold a thousand stand. 

The doctor was now engaged heart and soul in the pistol and negro busi- 
ness, and for the next two weeks held almost daily consultation with hi* 
friend Newcomer as to the best means of procuring and getting them to 
their destination. In a week or so they had obtained six likely boys, who, 
Smith was informed, would be delivered at any place he should name outside 
of the lines, and the doctor had procured the promise of four more. So far 
every thing was progressing favorably ; but the operations were more limited 
than suited the tastes of either, and each was constantly on the watch for some 
opportunity of materially enlarging them. Meanwhile the doctor was visited 
by numbers of persons representing themselves as paroled prisoners, spies, 
&c., to all of whom he extended a welcoming hand. With one in particular — 
introduced by Newcomer as a spy of General Wheeler — he became very 
intimate, and revealed to him his real sympathies and feelings quite at 
length. To him he said, on his first visit, — 

" I am a strong Southern Rights man; and not a day passes over my head 
that I do not do something to assist the Southern cause. I am watched by 
the detectives, I know, and have been frequently reported, but have not yet 
been imprisoned, because I play my cards right. I have in my house fre- 



BIO 



ARMY POLICE KECORD, 



quently, and am friendly with, many Federal officers, and, when reported, I 
prove Ijy them that the charge is false. I have aided in the escape of many 
prisoners, but they have always thought me innocent." 

Mrs. Hudson, however, did not seem as confident and easy as the doctor. 
She repeatedly cautioned their new friend to be very careful, as they were 
watched on all sides, and she had reason to suspect that certain suspicious- 
looking men who had been there a few days since were nothing else than 
spies sent there by some of the officers. She was assured by him that he 
was sharp enough to evade any detectives that could be sent to watch him 
or them, — at which she seemed satisfied and more at rest and confidential 
than before. Some of their friends, she said, with great glee, had recently 
escaped from the penitentiary, and intimated that she and a neighbor lady 
had assisted them to do so, without, however, saying it in so many words. 
The doctor made an appointment to meet him in town that day, — which he 
did, and pointed out to him on the street a number of friends whom it would 
do to talk to, gave him the names of others living in the country who would 
be of great assistance, and invited him to visit him at his house often, and 
to call upon him for any thing in his power to give. 

At this time large numbers of negroes were employed upon the fortifica- 
tions at Nashville ; and it was here that the doctor hoped to procure all that 
he wished to run South. Accordingly, he called upon Dr. or Lieutenant D. 
J. Deardurfi", Acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the Engineer Camp, 
and inquired if he could be spared some negroes long enough to build up and 
repair his fence, — saying that he would be very much obliged if he could be 
thus accommodated. The lieutenant replied that he might have them as 
soon as they could be spared, calculating, however, that this would not be 
until the works were finished, and not intending to let him have them until 
then. Soon afterward he was instructed by higher authority to confer .with 
Dr. Hudson and consent to arrangements with him to furnish negroes, 
and was informed that the doctor would call on him soon, — which he did in 
four or five days. Being treated with some courtesy, he proposed the trap- 
ping of boys from ten to fifteen years old, and said to the lieutenant that if 
he would engage with him in the business and turn them over to him, he 
could get at least one thousand dollars for every boy large enough to plough, 
and for able-bodied men from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars, and 
that they would divide the proceeds equally. He further said that he could 
get any kind of a pass he wished, as he had a farm outside the pickets, and 
would have no difficulty in getting through and disposing of them as fast as 
they could be furnished. Deardurff assented to the proposition, and told him 
he could have as many as he wanted ; whereupon the doctor took his leave, 
promising to call for them on the following Monday. 

The next thing now was to see Newcomer, report his success, and make 
arrangements for the future ; and for this he was not compelled to wait iong, 
as the latter called upon him that very evening. The doctor reported that 
he had sounded Lieutenant Deardurfi", with whom he had just taken dinner, 
in regard to the negro-smuggling business, and that the lieutenant hs»d 



DR. HUDSON THE SMUGGLER 511 

agreed to go into partnership -with him. He said, further, that he wa? 
going to-morrow to see Dr. Seamore and try to get three or four little negroes 
from him to take South, and also would go to Lieutenant Osgood and ask for 
a pass for himself and servants through the lines, upon which, if he obtained 
it, he would take out all the negroes he was to get from Deardurff and Sea- 
more. Newcomer was highly pleased, and congratulated the doctor upon 
his excellent management. He had just returned from outside the lines, he 
said, and had taken with him six negroes, whom he had sent South. 

" And while there," he continued, " I found a letter addressed to me from 
General Frank Cheatham, enclosing five hundred dollars, with which he 
requested me to purchase quinine for the use of his hospitals. I suppose I 
can procure it from Drs. Cliif and Ermy, of this city, can't I ?" 

" I am well acquainted with Ermy," replied the doctor ; " and I don't 
doubt I can get all we want from him." 

" But how will we manage to get it through the lines ?" 

" I think we can get Dr. Ford to carry it. At any rate. Ford, you, and I 
will meet at Rear's to-morrow and arrange it all." 

Newcomer was at the place appointed in due season, but found neither of 
the others there. Somewhat disappointed, he sent a note to Hudson, asking 
the reason of it, and received word that there had been a misunderstanding 
about the place of meeting, with a request that he would call at his house, 
as he was anxious to see him. Going at once, he was told by the doctor that 
he had seen and talked with Dr. Ermy about the quinine, and that they could 
have one hundred ounces for four hundred and seventy-five dollars. Hudson 
had offered four hundred and fifty dollars, and Ermy said he would not ob- 
ject, "as it was for suffering humaniti/," but his partner. Dr. Cliff, would 
have four hundred and seventy-five dollars, which he had finally agreed to 
give, thus closing the bargain. Newcomer expressed himself fully satisfied, 
and was about to leave the house, when he was approached by Mrs. Hudson, 
who said tliat there was in the penitentiary a Confederate ofiicer by the 
name of Russell, the son of an old friend of her husband, whom she was 
very anxious to get out and run through the lines. 

"Yes," said the doctor; "I would gladly crawl on my elbows from here 
to the prison, the stormiest night that ever blew, if by doing so I could re- 
lease him." 

" If you can get him out, I give you my word that I will take good care of 
Mm," was Newcomer's reply. 

" I will see him, then, to-morrow," remarked Mrs. Hudson, " and tell him 
that one of General Wheeler's spies is in the city, who will take charge of 
him and see him safely through the lines if he can only get out of prison." 

It was now the Monday on which the doctor hafl promised to call again 
upon Lieutenant Deardurff, and he was prompt to fulfil his appointment. 
The interview was a pleasant one ; and the doctor stated that he had made 
all the necessary arrangements, and was ready for business at any time, 
asking, finally, — 

"Do you see any chance of being caught in it?" 



512 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

" No," returned the lieutenant ; " I can manage my part of it withoul. 
any trouble. So far as I am concerned, I have no fear at all, and am satis- 
fied that if the thing is properly managed there is no danger in it. 
Besides, didn't you tell me you could get a pass of any kind at any time 
you wanted it?" 

"Yes," he answered, at the same time taking out and showing a pass. 
" I have one here. You see, it says, for myself and servants. I told them I 
had a farm beyond the pickets, and, as I was just commencing work on it, 
might want to take out more hands some days than others. They had better 
make it 'servants,' I said, and then it would pass out any number, — which 
they did ; and all I will have to do now will be to say that they are my ser- 
vants. The pickets are changed every day; so they'll not suspect any thing: 
and I think it's perfectly safe. At any rate, I'll risk it. If there's nothing 
risked there'll be nothing won, you know. We can make a very good thing 
out of it, and nobody will be the worse for it ; because they are runaway 
slaves, anyhow, whom their masters will never get again, and so will lose 
nothing by our operations." 

Other features of the plan were discussed for nearly three hours, when the 
doctor asked Deardurff to order his horse and go with him to select the best 
route to get them away, and also to call at his house and talk with his wife 
about it. He did so, and found Mrs. Hudson considerably more shrewd than 
her husband, but eventually gained her confidence, and was invited to dinner 
the next day. He accepted the invitation, and was generously entertained by 
the doctor and his family. During the meal, the former inquired if he could 
let him have any number of negroes, from four to twelve, that evening or 
night or the next morning, at any place that' would suit. 

" Do you know what you can do with them ?" queried the lieutenant. 

" I'll take them out on the farm, and then see what can be done with them 
and how many can be disposed of." 

" If I were in jowc place I would go and see Prior Smith and two or three 
others of your friends, and see what they say about it," continued Deardurfi", 
anxious to implicate as many as possible and at the same time convince 
Hudson that he was very much in earnest about the matter. 

" That's a good idea. I'll go to-morrow morning, and report to you im- 
mediately on my return." 

With this they parted, the one to go to his camp, the other to make ready 
for his journey. Whether this was ever performed it is not necessary to 
state ; but certainly it was not the next day, for the doctor had more import- 
ant business with Newcomer, which he must have forgotten when making 
this arrangement with Deardurff. The next morning Newcomer came early 
with the money to buy -the quinine which had been engaged of Dr. Ermy. 
When told what he had come for, Hudson at once ordered his buggy, and 
was just ready to start for the medicine, when his wife returned from the 
city, bringing word from Dr. Ford to have nothing to 'do with it, as he had 
reason to know that something was wrong. Mrs. Hudson also said that Dr. 
Chalmers, of Hospital No. 15, had told her that she and the doctor war**. 



DR. HUDSON THE SMUGGLER. 513 

watched at head-quarters, and that passes were only given them for the pur- 
pose of catching both of them, — that he had known it some time, and wouhi 
Jiave told her sooner, only he had been cautioned not to say any thing about 
it; but, notwithstanding, that he would warn them of their danger. He was 
surprised they were not already arrested ; and they must kepp a good look- 
out, or they soon would be. 

" I don't believe a word of it," said Newcomer. "At any rate, I'll find out 
before night whether any thing of the kind is in the wind, from one of Gene- 
ral Mitchel's clerks, who is in my employment." 

At this both were much pleased, and said they felt perfectly safe so lono- 
as they had such a shrewd friend to watch over them. 

Newcomer called again that evening, and found the doctor as ready as 
ever to assist in getting the quinine through ; but Mrs. Hudson was still 
much alarmed. Promising to come again in the morning, he left without 
making any arrangements about the matter. The next day he was informed 
by the doctor that Deardurff had dined with him a day or two before, and 
that all arrangements about the negroes had been satisfactorily agreed on 
between them. Newcomer now said that he had seen the clerk he had 
spoken of, and that he had told him there was nothing on file at head- 
quarters against him or his wife, and that all Dr. Chalmers had said was 
false. This made matters right again in a moment ; and Newcomer handed 
to Hudson the five hundred dollars, taking for it this receipt: — 

"$500. 

" Received five hundred dollars, to be appropriated as directed and 
understood. 

"J. R. Hudson. 

" March 6, 1863." 

The doctor said he would get A. W. Hendershot, a druggist of the city, 
to take the five hundred dollars and buy the quinine from Ermy, and he 
would send his servant to bring it to the house. From thence he would get 
his wife and daughter — Mrs. Ward, who lived five miles out on the Char- 
lotte pike — to take it beyond the lines to the house of the latter, and there 
leave it for Newcomer. They would, he said, tie twine around the necks of 
the bottles, and adjust them around their waists, under their clothes, and 
thus carry them out of their lines safely. He then introduced Newcomer to 
Mrs. Read, — wife of General Read of the Confederate army, — and gave him 
several letters which Mrs. Ford wished sent South. The ladies were very 
agreeable, showing him marked respect, inviting him to call often, and 
assuring him that he would always be treated "as a friend indeaL" 
Hudson started at once to make arrangements about the quinine, and 
Newcomer soon followed him. 

The next day, Hudson said that he had bought the quinine, and that 
fifty ounces were then hidden in his house, and that to-morrow he would 
have the remainder there. Newcomer thanked him for his promptness, ami 
eno-a"-ed in conversation upon other matters. There was a Federal commis- 

33 



514 AKMY POLICE RECORD. 

sary store burned iu town last niglit, he said, and he believed it had been 
done by some friend of the South. 

" I have no doubt of it," said the doctor. 

" If I knew who did it I would make him a present of one thousand 
dollars." 

• " If that is all you want, I can find you as many men who will do that 
kind of work as you wish. I will go and see about it to-morrow and let you 
know." 

"All right. I will pay well for it if it is well done." 

"Well, I don't think it is any worse than to capture a train of wagons 
loaded with the same kind of goods. I'd make the match to set the build- 
ings on fire myself. It is easy enough to do, too. All that is necessary is 
to take a piece of punk and wrap around it cotton soaked in turpentine ; 
then set fire to the punk, and it will not blaze for hours after it is put in 
the building ; so that a man will have ample time to get away before the fire 
breaks out." 

This ended the conversation and the acquaintance of the doctor and New- 
comer, who will at once be recognized as the scout and detective. And here, 
too, it may be stated — as has prolmbly been already surmised — that Walker, 
the Ashby cavalryman, and Wheeler's spy, the doctor's three friends, 
were simply members of the army police. Before the doctor had time to 
put into operation any of his plans for smuggling negroes or medicines 
through the lines, he was arrested, together with his wife and the gunsmith 
JRear. An examination of his house revealed a large amount and variety of 
contraband goods, — among which were nine revolvers, three shot-guns, two 
muskets, one rifle, three bags of bullets and buckshot, a large quantity of 
domestic and woollen goods, three bottles of morphine, and ninety-nine 
ounces of quinine. This latter, it seems, his daughter had refused to assist 
in carrying beyond the lines, and therefore it was found just where he had 
secreted it. Hudson and his wife were imprisoned — the former in the peni- 
tentiary, and the latter at her house — while their case was pending. The 
decision finally arrived at was to send them South beyond the lines, whither 
they had aided to send so many others. Rear was released on parole and 
bond, and is, we believe, still at large. 

Thus was the home-circle broken up ; and where was once only happi- 
ness is now misery. Though the guilt of the parents is not that of the 
children, they feel its weight, and in sorrow must mourn it for many 
days. "The way of the transgressor is hard," was said of him who violated 
the laws of God's kingdom ; and it is not less true of those who rebel and 
plot against a Government at once so beneficent and so powerful as ours. If 
at any time, now or in the future, the fate of Dr. Hudson, his wife, and the 
children upon whom his crimes have entailed sorrow, shall convey aught of 
warning to others, the labor spent in compiling this chapter will not have 
been in vain. 

In this case there were two ruling passions developed in the aged and 
wealthy rebel, — one to aid the rebellion, and the other to make money for 



NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 515 

himself. For the one, the plea of a mistaken, fanatical principle might 
be offered as an apology, but for the other none can entertain the least 
respect. The reader may exclaim against the seeming temptation resorted 
to in this case ; but there was really no temptation. The detectives were 
strictly enjoined in this, as in all other cases, simply to afford facilities to 
the secret evil-doers of Nashville in this hour of general rebellion and 
peril to the Government ; and the above record is evidence that they kept 
■within the line of their instructions. The schemes of Dr. Hudson were his 
own, or arose incidentally from his surroundings. Had plans and schemes 
been deliberately made up for him, one can hardly conjecture to what 
extent his principles and feelings would have carried him. 



Newcomer the Scout. 



Harry Newcomer was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 
March, 1829. Born and raised in a hotel, he was employed as a bar-tender 
until he reached the age of about fourteen, when his mother died and his 
father broke up housekeeping. Thus thrown out of present employment, 
he soon afterwards went to Ohio, where he was apprenticed to learn the 
milling business. Serving out his time, he continued at this some years, 

until his brother-in-law, a Mr. Gates, — now County Auditor of 

Ashland county, Ohio, — was elected sheriff, when he was appointed one of 
his deputies. In 1857 he went to Cleveland, and Avas employed by Jabez 
Fitch, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, as a detect- 
ive officer. This situation he retained some three years, during which time 
he was quite successful in developing several noted cases of crime and 
bringing to punishment men who had grown gray in villany. One of these 
cases is so remarkable in its history and character, and was productive of 
such startling results, that the author thinks it worthy of a detailed narra- 
tion, as an example of the skill displayed by our detective, and an illustra- 
tion of the practical truth of the saying that " murder will out." 

Information had been obtained by the authorities that a large business 
was transacted in the manufacture and sale of counterfeit money in Geauga 
county, Ohio. Though it was certain that the information was correct, it had 
thus far been found impossible to obtain any positive evidence by which to 
fix the guilt upon the suspected parties. By his previous operations New- 
comer had acquired the reputation of being an ingenious and successful 
detective, and it was determined to send him down to try his hand at the 
case. He was instructed to make the acquaintance of an old blacksmith 
named Jesse Bowen, who lived near a place called Burton Square in that 
county. This Bowen, in addition to his trade, cultivated a small farm, and 
had long been known as a lawless character, engaged in every manner of 
fraud and crime, but had, nevertheless, managed to escape detection and 



516 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

punishment. He Tras now some seventy-eight years old, and lived a friend-' 
less, unsocial life, his house being shunned by all -who had any care for 
their reputation and standing. To this man Newcomer introduced himself as 
William H. Hall, an extensive manufacturer of and dealer in counterfeit 
money. To substantiate this representation of himself, he exhibited large 
quantities of counterfeit bills on various banks, — with an abundance of 
which he had been furnished before leaving Cleveland. Two or three in- 
terviews were had, in which he succeeded in so completely gaining confidence 
that the old man gave him the names of all the parties in that vicinity 
dealing in counterfeit money. He was then working a small patch of corn, 
and as soon as he could finish hoeing that and cut and get in his hay, he 
said, he would take him around and introduce him to them, when he could 
easily dispose of all his money. Newcomer now went to work with the old 
man, and assisted him about his corn and hay, that he might get through as 
soon as possible. During this time he stayed with Bowen, sleeping up-stairs, 
while the old man and his wife remained below. Scarcely a night would 
pass that some one of the gang of thieves, robbers, and counterfeiters who 
made this their head-quarters would not come and knock on the side of the 
house. The old man would thrust out his head and ask, "Who's there?" 
If the password was correctly given, the door would open at once. By lying 
awake at nights when he was thought to be asleep, sometimes getting out 
of bed and listening at the window or peeping through the cracks in the 
floor. Newcomer soon ascertained that this password was "Washington," 
heard much of their conversation, learned their plans, and often saw them 
buying counterfeit coin of Bowen. 

Day by day the old man's confidence in him became stronger, until at 
last he imparted to him all his secrets, took him to his shop, dug up from 
one corner his tools, moulds, and other apparatus for coining money, and 
explained to him 'the whole business. Newcomer now assisted him in the 
manufacture of bogus coin, and soon they had a considerable stock on hand. 
One day the old man called him out into a small orchard near his house, and, 
sitting down under an apple-tree, told him to take a seat beside him, as he 
wished to talk with him. 

"I have," began he, "something to tell you, — something I never told to 
anybody before, not even to my wife. It seems strange, perhaps, that I 
should tell it to you now, a comparative stranger, whom I have known but 
a few days ; but I feel something within me that prompts me to it. Forty 
j-ears ago, when I lived in Vermont, my brother and myself murdered our 
brother-in-law in the woods one day. He was a simple, shallow-witted 
fellow, and was in the habit of wandering oiF by himself and remaining for 
some time away in the woods. On one of these occasions we waylaid and 
killed him. For a time nobody knew what had become of him ; but by-and- 
by some portion of the body was found and identified, and we were arrested 
as the murderers. Nobody had seen the murder done ; but there were certain 
things tending to fasten the guilt on us, and the possession of the consider- 
able property he left was supposed to be motive enough for the deed. The 



NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 517 

evidence was entirely circumstantial; but it convinced the jury, we were 
convicted and sentenced to be hanged. The case was desperate, and it 
seemed imijossible to escape. The day of the execution was drawing 
nigh, and we had about given up all hopfe, — when relief and release came 
very imexpectedly. Some of our friends accidentally fell in with a nuiu 
in New Jersey who was the very image of the murdered man. His most 
intimate friends could not have told them apart. I myself, when I first saw 
him, was ready to sink through the floor with fear, thinking that our 
brother-in-law had returned to accuse us. This man was brought into court, 
and swore that he was the identical man whom we had been accused and 
convicted of murdering. Nobody could gainsay it, and we were released. 
He remained there just long enough for this, and then disappeared as mys- 
teriously as he came, never having been seen or heard of since. My brother 
remained in Vermont, and died there. What little property I had was 
entirely used up in the expenses of the trial, lawyer's fee, &c., and I came 
here to Ohio, where I have been ever since. I was poor, and this counter- 
feiting business suited my taste, and I have been engaged in it, more or less, 
during all the time I have lived here. Our case has been often published 
and cited as a striking instance of the utter unreliability of the sti'ougest 
circumstantial evidence, and as a narrow escape from death of two innocent 
men ; but nobody knew that we actually did kill him, and that his return 
was all a made-up scheme to effect our release, based upon the extraordinary 
likeness of the man to our murdered brother-in-law." 

To say that Newcomer was not astonished and horrified at this strange 
revelation of long-concealed crime would be to say that he was not human 
in his sympathies and feelings ; but, whatever he may have thought and 
felt, he artfully avoided any expression of it, and as speedily as possible 
changed the conversation to other subjects. The old man's work was now 
done, and the promised trip around the county was made. Some fifteen or 
twenty dealers were visited and traded with. Newcomer bought, sold, and 
exchanged counterfeit money with them, and thus gained their confidence 
as fully as he had gained Bowen's. Many of them aftei'wards came to see 
him at the house of the latter, where they had long conferences and together 
laid out plans for future operations. The circle of Newcomer's acquaint- 
ance rapidly increased, and soon numbered the more considerable counter- 
feiters, burglars, horse-thieves, &c. of that whole region. Several weeks 
passed in this way, when urgent business called him away, and he returned 
to Cleveland to report progress to Marshal Fitch. Officers were immediately 
despatched to the place, and five of the gang arrested, — among whom was 
Bowen. Large quantities of bogus coin, together with the moulds and 
metal used in its manufacture, were found in his shop. They were brought 
to Cleveland and confined in jail, where Bowen was visited by many citi- 
zens, to whom he confessed that the facts as here stated were substantially 
correct. They were all tried, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary, — 
Bowen for six years, and the others for terms ranging from one to five. 

During his stay in Cleveland, Newcomer was engaged in many other cases, 
D 



518 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

som 3 of them of scarcely less importance than the one just mentioned; but 
they cannot even be alluded to in this brief sketch. Suffice it to say that he 
obtained a wonderful local reputation for skill and sagacity in the develop- 
ment of difficult and complicated cases, and that his services were in 
demand in various parts of the country. In 1860 he went to Pittsburg, 
where he made the acquaintance of Kobert Hague, Chief of Police in that 
city, and was by him introduced to Biddle Koberts, — then United States 
District Attorney, now a colonel in the Federal army, — who at once employed 

him as a detective. At this time " Campbell, an able and energetic 

officer, as well as an accomplished and courteous gentleman, was Marshal of 
the Western District of Pennsylvania. The wilds of Western Pennsylvania 
had long been notorious as the hiding-place of innumerable thieves, counter- 
feiters, and murderers. Many efforts had been made to break up their 
gangs and rid society of so disgraceful an element, but, for some reason, they 
had all ended in failure. The United States authorities were now determined 
to make another attempt to discover the whereabouts and arrest the leaders 
and members of this wide-spread association of criminals. It was a task in 
which only the utmost ingenuity and enterprise could hope to succeed ; and 
the subject of our sketch was selected as the proper person to whom to 
commit it. 

For half a century, a place in Butler county — known as the Stone House — 
had been designated as the head-quarters of much of this villany. It was 
in a wild, dreary region, at a crossing of public roads where stages were 
in the habit of stopping for meals and a change of horses. About a mile 
from this tavern, in a dense forest near the iron-mountains, lived the leader 
and head of the gang, Charles Coventry by name, but known among his 
confederates as " the Old North Pole." He was a desperate, daring man, 
fearing nothing, and feared by all. Tall and heavy-built, — weighing at 
least two hundred pounds, — dark-skinned as a negro, with a strong black 
beard and a thick bushy head of hair, he was the very beau-ideal of a 
reckless, law-defying bandit. To the lair of this "wild man of the woods" 
Newcomer was sent, with instructions to ascertain as nearly as possible his 
whereabouts, habits, and associations, and to obtain such other information 
concerning him as could be gathered up about the neighborhood. Having 
no recommendation to him, he could not at this time hope to do more than 
this, as Coventry was too shrewd and practised a rogue to be easily caught. 
His instructions were fully carried out, and he returned in a few days to 
Pittsburg, reporting progress to the authorities. He had not seen Coven- 
try, but had reconnoitred the neighborhood and prepared the way for 
future operations in the same direction. 

While at Pittsburg two events transpired that gave him a foundation to 
work upon in his second and more elaborate attempt. In themselves they 
were trivial circumstances, and seemed to afford little promise of results ; 
but give our detective the smallest fissure wherein to insert his entering 
wedge, and he will speedily drive it to the head. The facts which New- 
comer now eagerly seized were, first the arrest and imprisonment in Phila- 



NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 519 

delphia of an intimate friend and formex- partner of Coventry's, on a cliai'ge 
of counterfeiting, and, secondly, the opportune return to Pittsburg of an old 
acquaintance and colaborer of his own, — Dr. Joshua Webb. The doctor was 
acquainted with Coventry, and, in some way, had managed to ingratiate 
himself into his confidence and esteem. It was arranged between Webb and 
Newcomer that the former should at once go down to Coventry's house on » 
visit and remain there for a time. In a week or so the latter would follow, 
and introduce himself to Coventry as an. acquaintance of Coventry's im- 
prisoned friend and the bearer of a message from him to Coventry, — his 
own character and standing being vouched for by Webb, should occasion 
require. This programme was carried out, — Webb going down, and New- 
comer following in a week after. On the way from the Stone House to 
Coventry's nobody was seen but a little girl, who was coming from the 
house and passed on down the hill to a buckwheat-patch, where a number 
of men were at work cutting the grain. Newcomer went to the house, 
climbed a high fence by which it was surrounded, and knocked at the door. 
No answer being given, he shook it, tried the latch, attempting to open it, 
but found it fastened. Concluding nobody was at home, he turned to retrace 
his steps, and had just gotten over the fence again, when his attention was 
attracted by a short, quick coughing, or rather hemming, of somebody 
inside. The house was a stor3^-aud-a-half log cabin, of which only the lower 
part was " chinked and daubed," — as it is called, — the crevices between the 
logs of the upper portion being left open. It was through these that the 
voice evidently proceeded; and soon a nose and mouth made their appear- 
ance at one of them. In a loud, hoarse whisper, the mouth said, — 

"They're all down in the buckwheat. Don't look this way, but turn 
around and look towards the woods, as if you were watching for somebody, 
while I talk to you. It's rather dark up here, and you can't see me very 
well ; but you know me, don't you ?" 

" Yes, Doc : it's you, isn't it?" 

"Yes. We've got the press up, and I am cutting out two-dollar-and- 
a-half pieces. The old man is out cutting his buckwheat, and I am helping 
him make coin. We'll soon have lots on hand." 

" Well, Doc," replied Newcomer, gazing intently into the woods, " I'll go 
back to the Stone House and come again when he's at home. You can say 
that somebody came to the house, but you didn't know who it was, lest he 
should accidentally have seen me and suspect something." 

So saying, he walked slowly back to the tavern, and loitered about there 
until evening, when he again went to Coventry's, and at some distance from 
the house saw him sitting under a shed, talking with one of his confreres, 
but was not seen by them. Near the house, meeting the girl whom he had 
seen in the morning, he stopped and said to her, — 

" Does Mr. Coventry live here ?" 

"Yes," was the reply. 

" Are you his daughter?" 

'• Yes, sir." 



520 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

"Woll, my little girl, won't you run back and tell your pa that there is a 
gentleman here -vrho wishes to speak with him for a moment V 

The girl did as requested, and Coventry came out at once, holding out his 
hand in a very friendly way. Newcomer introdliced himself as II. C. Myers, 
and informed him of the situation of his Philadelphia friend. He had seen 
him recently in prison, he said, and had been requested by him to call on 
Coventry and tell him that he was in trouble, and was very anxious to have 
him come and see him, if possible. 

Coventry was surprised, and evidently uneasy. " lie was one of the best 
and keenest men in the business," said he ; " and it is very strange that he 
should be jugged. I am very sorry about it, — would almost as soon be in pri- 
son myself, and, if necessary, will spend every dollar I have to get him out. 
But come ; let me introduce you to a friend of mine here." 

Newcomer went with him to the shed where he had been sitting, and was 
introduced to the man whom he had seen talking with Coventry a few mo- 
ments previous. The latter accompanied the ceremony with the remark, 
" He's all right, I know ; or my friend wouldn't have sent him to me." The 
three talked together for some time, Newcomer all the while, with inimitable 
tact, drawing him out and working upon his sympathies, until he gained his 
confidence as completely as he had that of many others before. Wishing to 
see and perhaps buy some of his wares, the old man went into the house and 
brought out specimens of bogus coin and a pair of fine steel dies for stamp- 
ing it, which Newcomer agreed to take at another time. Coventry gave him 
the names of several other parties engaged in the same business, and recom- 
mended him to them. Our detective now took his leave, first making a bar- 
gain, however, to come again in ten days and purchase a large amount of 
counterfeit coin. 

At the time appointed, in company with Robert Hague and five police- 
men, he started on his promised return. At Somerset they arrested a mer- 
chant, one of the parties recommended by Coventry, and then proceeded on 
their way. About three o'clock in the morning they had arrived within a 
mile of his house, and there left the wagon, with two of the ofiBcers in charge. 
Newcomer, with Hague and the other three, started towards the house. 
Knowing the desperate character of the man, and that he always kept two or 
three double-barrelled guns loaded ready for use, they did not seem to relish 
the idea of marching boldly up to the house ; and, to avoid danger. Newcomer 
proposed to go and decoy him out of his stronghold. The night being too 
dark to distinguish persons, it was arranged that when they were heard 
coming back along the path the officers should spring out and arrest the 
foremost one. He went to' the house and called Coventry out. The latter 
was in bed, but soon came down, without stopping to put on his coat. He 
seemed much pleased to see Newcomer, and asked him to come into the 
house. 

" No," was the reply ; " I canJt, just now. I brought down a large lot of 
ones and twos on the State Bank of Ohio, but I didn't know who I might 
meet here, and concluded it wasn't quite safe to bring them to the house first 



l^EWCOMER THE SCOUT. 521 

thing. So I left my satchels out in the woods; and, if you'll get your coin, a 
candle, and some matches, we'll go right out and make our exchange there." 

Coventry assented, went into the house, and in a few minutes returned 
with the coin and the steel dies, which he put in his pocket. They felt their 
way along until they reached the place where the officers were concealed, 
Newcomer dropping to the rear, and at this time being a considerable distance 
behind Coventry, who was in his shirt-sleeves still, and the more readily dis- 
tinguishable. Just as he was fairly opposite them, all four of the ambushed 
oiJicers jumped upon him, whereupon ensued a desperate struggle ; and it 
was fully half an hour before they succeeded in getting the handcuffs upon 
him. During all this time he kept constantly shouting, " I'm trapped ! I'm 
arrested I" &c., in order to alarm Webb, who was yet in the house, and give 
him a chance to escape. He succeeded also in throwing away the dies, and, 
though search was made for them the nest day, they were never found. 
Secured at last, he was placed in the wagon, and the whole party drove up 
to his house, where an immense amount of counterfeit money, moulds, dies, 
and a heavy iron press used for striking off bills, were found. Coventry was 
subsequently tried, convicted, and sent to the penitentiary for five years. 

Newcomer remained at Pittsburg through the administration of Marshal 
Campbell, and for some time with his successor. Marshal Murdoch. On one 
occasion he went to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and arrested nine counter- 
feiters, with all their dies and instruments and a large amount of coin. Many 
other smaller but interesting cases were developed by him, some sixty-eight 
in number, and embracing every kind of vice and crime. Some jealousy hav- 
ing arisen on the part of the city police, caused by his extraordinary success, 
he deemed it inadvisable to remain there longer, and about two years ago 
came to Chicago, where he had several interviews with C. P. Bradley, Chief 
of Police ; but, finding nothing important on hand or in prospect, he concluded 
to return to Ohio. In Logan county, Indiana, he met with an officer recruit- 
ing for the Eleventh Indiana Battery, who induced him to enlist in the same 
as a non-commissioned ofiicer. At Louisville he joined the battery, and came 
with it to Nashville. Thence he accompanied Buell in his severe march 
over almost impassable roads and through swollen streams to Pittsburg 
Landing and Shiloh, — not arriving, however, in time to participate in the 
battle. Thence he went to Corinth, remaining there until its evacuation by 
the rebels, and thence to Iluntsville and Stevenson, Alabama. Here, the 
monotony of camp and stockade life becoming irksome, he began to vary it 
by scouting on his own account. Frequently at night, after tattoo, he would 
mount his horse, slip past the pickets, scour the neighboring country in quest 
of information and adventure, and return again before reveille, his absence 
seldom being noticed by any one. On one occasion something of more than 
ordinary importance having come to his notice, he reported it to Colonel 
Ilarkcr, of the 65th Ohio Volunteers, then commanding the brigade stationed 
at that post, stating the means by which, he had obtained the information, 
and giving some account of his previous midnight scouts. The colonel, 
highly pleased, at once gave him passes, and instructed him to continue the 
business as he had time and opportunity. 



522 ARMY POLICE RECORD, 

Frequently he would go down to the Tennessee River in sight of the rebel 
picket'.! ; and one night he concluded to cross the river and get a nearer view 
of them. Striking the stream at a point three miles from Stevenson, he 
built a raft of rails and paddled himself across. Crawling up the bank 
through the bush, he came close upon the pickets, seven in number, without 
being observed. After watching their movements a while and finding nothing 
of particular interest, he returned safely as he went. Soon afterwards a negro 
told him of an island in the Tennessee River, some ten miles below Stevenson, 
on which a company of guerrilla cavalry were in the habit of rendezvousing 
every night. This opened a large field of operations for our scout, and 
he determined to visit the island forthwith. One afternoon, borrowing a 
suit of butternut from a negro at Stevenson, he set forth in that direction. 
The butternut clothes were carried under his saddle until he was fairly out- 
side of our lines, when he exchanged his 'own for them and went on in 
the character of a genuine native. Reaching the river opposite the island 
after dark, he again constructed a raft of rails, fastening them together this 
time with grape-vines, and shoved across the narrow channel to the island, 
landing in a dense canebrake. Carefully feeling his way through this, 
he came soon to a corn-crib, around which twenty-five or thirty horses 
were feeding. It was now ten o'clock, and quite dark, but clear and star- 
light. Examining the crib, the entrance was discovered about half-way up, 
and our adventurer at once clambered up and put his head and shoulders 
through. Careful listening revealed the presence of sleepers within. Putting 
his hand down to see how far it was to them, it came in contact with the 
body of a man. AVishing to know in what direction he was lying, he felt 
along carefully and came upon a pistol in his belt. Working at this, he 
soon drew it out, and, finding it a good Colt's revolver, put it into his pockei 
and got down again. Exploring around, he came to a cOrn-patch and 
a cabin near by, in which there seemed, from the noise within, to be a family 
or two of negroes. Crossing to the south or rebel side of the island, he found 
that the stream was much narrower there than on the other side, and that 
close to the shore a number of boats and scows, in which the band crossed 
and recrossed, were tied. It was now time to think about getting home, and 
he circled around the crib and cabin to reach the place where he had left his 
raft. When he came in sight of it, there was also to be seen a human form 
standing by the water's edge and apparently regarding the raft with no 
little astonishment. In the uncertain light, it was impossible to tell whether it 
was man or woman, white or black ; and there was nothing to do but wait 
until it disappeared. Crouching down amid the canes, he soon saw it 
turn and begin to climb the bank directly towards him, and as a precau- 
tionary measure took out the pistol and cocked it, though he could not 
see or feel whether it was loaded or not. The person proved to be a negro, 
and passed by, unconscious of the presence of any one so near, soliloquizing 
to himself thus: — " Mighty quare boat dat ar ; 'spec's some of Masser John's 
work." This danger having passed, our self-appointed spy descended and 
re-embarked on his raft. Lest any one should see him, he lay fiat upon 
it, paddling with extended arms, the whole presentiug very much the appear- 



NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 523 

ance of a floating mass of driftwood. By the time he reached the opposite 
shore his butternut suit was pretty thoroughly soaked, but, without stopping. 
to dry it, he mounted his horse, which he found straying about the woods, 
rode on to Stevenson, and reported to Colonel Harker. An expeditioD 
for the capture of this band — afterwards ascertained to be Captain Roun- 
tree's company — was just about starting, when orders were received to eva- 
cuate the place and fall back to Nashville with the remainder of Buell's 
army. 

The battery went no farther backward than Nashville, remaining there 
during the famous investment of the city and until the Army of the Cum- 
berland again reached it. Meanwhile, Newcomer was occasionally employed 
by General Negley as a detective ; but most of the time was spent with his 
command. Early in December the police and scout system was fully organ- 
ized and in successful operation. Our former scout, thinking that he could 
serve the Government to better advantage in the business with which he 
was so familiar, made application to Colonel Truesdail for employment as a 
scout and spy. The colonel, pleased with his appearance and conversation, 
at once made an engagement with him, and procured his detail for that 
special service. Having previously made the acquaintance of one Cale 
Harrison, a livery-stable-keeper, he now called on him, and, exhibiting a 
forged certificate of discharge, told him that he was on his way to the rebel 
army. Harrison, of course, was highly pleased to hear it, and gave him 
some valuable hints and information for his guidance in the matter. There 
was, he said, a man living on the Charlotte pike, by the name of Spence, whose 
son was an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Polk, and who would 
undoubtedly assist him in getting South and give him a letter of introduc- 
tion to his son. In this event the road would be clear, and no difiBculty 
need be appi'ehended in making the trip. 

Thus directed, he set forth from Nashville on a scout South, with saddle- 
bags well filled with fine-tooth combs, needles, pins, thread, &c., and carry- 
ing two fine navy revolvers. Going directly to Spence's, he introduced him- 
self, said he had called by recommendation of Harrison, made known his 
business, and asked for a letter to his son, on General Polk's staff. Spence 
received him cordially, but would not furnish him with the desired letter. 
He referred him, however, to J. Wesley Ratcliffe, living about one mile 
from Franklin, on the Lewisburg pike, as a person likely to render him very 
material assistance. This Ratcliffe was a rebel agent for the purchase of 
stock and commissary stores, and was well known throughout the whole 
country. Pushing on, he accordingly called at Ratcliffe's, and made hia 
acquaintance. When informed of his plans and purposes and shown the 
goods, Ratcliffe was much pleased, and soon became very friendly, advising 
him to go to Shelbyville, where such articles were greatly needed and could 
easily be disposed of. Newcomer accordingly started for Shelbyville, and for 
some time met with no incidents on the way. Between Canoy Springs and 
Rover, however, he fell in with a band of rebel cavalry belonging to General 
Buford's command, who, on being made acquainted with his business, advised 



524 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

him hot to go to Shelbyville, as considerable trouble might be experien ."d 
there. Their bushy shocks of hair suggesting that they were combless, he 
offered his stock for sale, chatting meanwhile with them about matters and 
things in general and in that vicinity in particular. Combs which cost two 
dollars per dozen he sold for two dollars each, and other articles in pro- 
portion, and, by the time his trading was finished, had ascertained that 
General Buford was stationed at Rover to guard a large mill full of flour and 
meal, — the size of his command, the number and calibre of his guns, and 
other items of importance, and also what generals and troops were at 
Shelbyville. The cavalrymen now wished him to go back to Nashville and 
bring them some pistols on his return. This he agreed to do, and, having 
obtained all the information he cared for at this time, turned his horse about 
and once more set his face towards Nashville. The two pistols which he had 
carried with him he had not shown, and still had them in his possession, 
— which circumstance was the cause of a slight adventure on the way home. 
He had proceeded but a little way when he met with a small squad of 
cavalry, who halted him, as usual, and demanded his name, business, and 
where he was going. These questions satisfactorily answered, he was next 
asked if he had any pistols about him. He replied that he had two, and 
was forthwith ordered by a rough-looking Texan to produce them, which 
was hardly done before they were coolly appropriated by his interrogator. 
Remonstrance was followed by abuse and threats of violence ; and it was 
only by the intervention of the other parties that the matter was com- 
promised by the sale of the pistols at fifty dollars each, and our traveller 
allowed to go on his way rejoicing. Without interruption head-quarters 
were reached, and a report of operations duly made. 

Remaining two days at Nashville, he started again, with three pistols and 
the balance of the old stock of goods. The first night was spent at Ratcliffe's, 
and the next day both went to Murfreesborough in a buggy. Ratclifie had 
business to transact with the provost-marshal and a number of the generals 
and inferior officers to see, and Newcomer was taken round and introduced 
to all as a colaborer in the cause of the South. During his four days' stay 
he was all over the town, through several of the camps, in many of the 
houses, drank whiskey with General Frank Cheatham, went to a grand 
party at the court-house, and made love to a dozen or more young ladies of 
Secession proclivities, — aided in all this by a perfect self-possession, an easy, 
graceful manner, and a winning face. In addition to pleasure-seeking and 
love-making, he also drove a thriving business in the sale of pistols and 
other contraband goods, and, wath pockets filled with money and head stored 
with information, returned with RatcliS"e to his house, and thence to Nash- 
ville, — having first made an arrangement with the former to accompany him 
to Shelbyville the next day. Arriving at Nashville after dark, he remained 
there until morning, and then made preparations and started for a third 
ti'ip. 

With a pair or two of cotton-cards, a lot of pistol-caps, and some smaller 
knick-knacks, as passports to favor, he set forth once more to jo.n Ratclifiie ; 



NEWCOMER THE SCOn. 525 

but, having been unavoidably delayed in starting, he found hiin already gone. 
Nothing was now to be done but to push boldly ahead in the hope of over- 
taking him on the road or meeting him at Shelbyville. With the exception 
of Ratcliffe, not a soul there knew him. Trusting to good fortune, he travelled 
on, and reached Shelbyville in due season without trouble. The usual ques- 
tions were asked him by guards and pickets, to all of wliich he replied that 
he lived in Davidson county, was going to visit some friends in the 44th Ten- 
nessee Regiment, and had, moreover, a small stock of contraband goods for sale. 
These answers proving satisfactory, he was passed through, and reached the 
town early in the forenoon. Most of the day he spent in riding about, look- 
ing into quartermasters' and commissary depots, inquiring the names of 
officers, the number of troops, commanders, &c., until he had ascertained all 
that he wished. By this time niglit was drawing near, and it was high time 
to think about getting out of town; for should he remain after dark he was 
certain to be arrested. Ratcliffe was nowhere to be seen; and on inquiry lie 
was told that he had gone to Atlanta, Georgia, on the train, and that nobody 
knew when he would be back. Here was a desperate state of affairs. ' Get 
out of town he must, and to get out he must have a pass. It was easy 
enough to come in, but very difficult to get out. Nobody knew him ; and, 
in fact, for once in his life, he "was at a loss what to do. While thus 
troubled, he met some citizens of Davidson county who had been over 
the river to the camps of Ciieatham and McCown's division and wore now 
on their way to the provost-marshal to procure return passes. Misery loves 
company, and, with long face, he told them his trouble, — dressing it up 
with a considerable amount of fiction to suit the occasion. By way of 
adding earnestness to his entreaty and to open a sure path to their sympa- 
thies, he bought a bottle of whiskey and invited them all to drink with him. 
The liquor warmed their hearts as well as stomachs ; and while hobnobbing 
together he asked them if they wouldn't vouch for him to the provost- 
marshal and thus enable him to procure a pass. Being now in a condition 
to love the world and everybody in it, they promised to do so, and in due 
season all went for passes. His seven newly-made friends found no difficulty 
in their suit, their names being all written on a single pass ; but our scout 
was left unnoticed. The attention of the provost-marshal was called to him, 
when that functionary asked if any of them was personally acquainted with 
him. Though rebels, they would not lie, — possibly they thought it was not 
necessary, — and answered, "No," but they would vouch for him. But that 
would not do. His situation now was worse than ever. He not only had 
no pass, but had not the slightest chance of getting one. The whiskey 
investment had proved a losing speculation ; and he knew not where to turn 
for relief. The loungers about the office began to eye him suspiciously, and 
even the dogs seemed disposed to growl and snap at him as having no busi- 
ness there. The place was getting too hot for safety ; and his only hope of 
escape was to hurry out and lose himself in the crowd. 

His new friends were still outside, waiting for him ; and with them along 
consultation was held as to what had better be done about getting away, as 



526 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

every moment added to his already serious danger. Finally, one of the party 
suggested that he should go with them anyhow,- — that the pickets would 
not be likely to notice that his name was not in the pass, there being so 
many already on it. In default of any thing better, this proposition was 
agreed to, and all set out together. Newcomer, however, was still far from 
easy about the matter, and was fearful that the plan would not work. As 
they were journeying along, he proposed to the one who had the pass that 
he should be allowed to write his own name on the pass with a pencil, and 
if any objection should be made to it they might say that he belonged to the 
party but did not come in until the pass was made out, and that the provost- 
marshal, to save writing a new one, had inserted the name in pencil-mark. 
This was assented to and done. The amended pass carried them safely 
through, and the last cloud of anxiety was lifted from his troubled mind. 

Some twelve or fifteen miles having been passed over pleasantly. New- 
comer purposely lagged behind and allowed the others to get far ahead, 
wlien he turned off and struck across to the Lewisburg and Franklin pike. 
Travelling on this about ten miles, he stopped for the night, with five of 
Wheeler's cavalry, at the house of a man who had a son in Forrest's com- 
mand. Starting the next morning betimes, he reached Ratcliffe's the same 
evening, but found he had not yet reached home. Stopping a few moments, 
he passed on through Franklin towards Nashville. He had gone some seven 
miles, and was near Brentwood, when he saw four cavalrymen riding 
furiously down a lane just ahead of him. They and our hero reached its 
entrance at the same moment. The leader of the squad — who proved to be 
Captain Harris, a scout of John Morgan's, and who, as well as his three 
men, was very drunk — roughly halted him, and, riding up, pistol in hand, 
sliouted, — 

" Who are you ? and where do you live ?" 

" My name is Newcomer, and I live six miles from Nashville, near Brent 
Spence's," was the ready, respectful reply. 

Spence was well known to all, and no further trouble was apprehended ; 
hut the drunken captain was not so easily satisfied. He soon asked, — 

" Where have you been? and what in the are you doing here ?" 

" I have been to Shelby ville to see Spence's son, and I took along some 
contraband goods to sell." 

"You can go back to Franklin with me, sir!" 

Protestation was unavailing ; and without more ado he turned about arid 
all started towards Franklin. On the way Harris asked if he had any 
arms with him, and, on being told that he had two fine levolvers and some 
cartridges, ordered him to give them up, which was done. With a savage 
leer he then said, — 

" I know all about you. You're a Yankee spy. You have been 

going backwards and forwards here so much that the citizens of Franklin 
have suspected you for a long time, and have reported you. I am satisfied 

that you are a Yankee spy ; and I am going to hang you, you. Bz-agg 

has ordered me never to bring in spies, but to shoot or hang them like dogs, 



NEWCOMER THE SCOTJT. 527 

on 'ihe spot ; and I am going to make a beginning with you, now, this very 
night." 

"If you do that," was the reply, "you'll take the life of a good and true 
man. I can show by J. W. Ratcliffe that I am a true Southerner, that I have 
done much good for the cause, — very likely much more than you have, — and 
that I am duing good every day I live." 

"Captain," said one of the men, "it may be that he is an important 
man to our cause ; and you had better see Ratcliffe and inquire into his 
case." 

Harris studied a moment, and finally concluded to go with the prisoner to 
Ratcliffe's and confer about the matter, — at the same time assuring him that 
it was of no use, for he should certainly hang him anj'how. At Franklin 
all stopped to drink, and Harris and his men became beastly drunk. 
Reeling into their saddles, they were once more on their way to Ratcliffe's, 
but had gone only a short distance, when Harris wheeled his horse and 
hiccoughed out, — • 

"Boys, there's no use in fooling. I am satisfied this fellow's a 

Yankee spy ; and here's just as good a place as we can find to hang him. 
Take the halter off that horse's neck and bring it here." 

It was indeed a fitting place in which to do foul murder. Not a house 
was to be seen ; and the road wound through one of those cedar thickets 
so dense that even in mid-day it is almost dark within them. It was now 
night, and the sombre shade even more gloomy than ever, as Harris jumped 
from his horse, and, taking the halter, made a noose of it, and, fitting it 
around the neck of the unlucky scout, drew it up uncomfortably tight, until, 
in fact, it was just about strangling him. 

Now or never was the time to expostulate and entreat. In a moment it 
might be too late ; and then farewell home, friends, and all the joys of life I 
It is not hard to die in peace, surrounded by weeping friends, or even to 
meet the dread king in the shock and excitement of battle ; but to hang like 
a dog ! — the idea is sickening, appalling ; and it is no sign of cowardice to 
shrink from it. One more effort, then, for life, even if it be to supplicate for 
mercy from a drunken rebel. 

" Captain," said he, with great feeling, " it is wrong to take a man's life 
on so slight a suspicion. It is a vast responsibility to take upon one's self; 
and you may do something for which you will be sorry by-and-by, in your 
calmer moments, and for which you may be even punished when it comes 
to the knowledge of General Bragg." 

To which came the rough and heartless answer, "I know my business; 

and I don't want any advice from a Yankee spy. When I do, I'll let 

you know. Come along," shouted he, seizing the rope and dragging his 
victim towards a tree. " I know my duty, and am going to do it, too. Come 
on, men, and let's swing up this rascally spy." 

They refused to come to his assistance, however, saying that they were as 
ready as he to do their duty, but they wanted to be a little better satisfied 
about the matter. It was only half a mile to Ratcliffe's, and it would be a 



528 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

very easy thing to go and see what he said about it. Harris would not listea 
a moment, and again ordered them to come and help him, which tliey dared 
not longer refuse. 

The case now appeared hopeless. , Death stared him in the face, and life, 
with all its memories and pleasures, seemed passing dreamily away. Look- 
. ing into the cedars hanging heavy with darkness, they seemed the 
entrance to the valley of the shadow of death, beyond which lay the infinite 
and mysterious future. On the verge of the grave life was yet sweet, — yet 
worth striving for ; and, as a last effort, the unfortunate man went up to 
Harris, placed his hand on his shoulder, and asked him if he would promise, 
on the word and honor of a gentleman, that he would go to General Bragg 
and give him a true statement of the affair, narrating every circumstance as 
it actually occurred. Then, turning to the men, he asked them if they 
would do it, provided the captain did not. Less hardened than the captain, 
they feelingly answered that they would ; and the earnestness with which 
they replied was proof enough that they would make good their words. 
This set the captain to thinking. He evidently didn't like the idea of 
Bragg's hearing about it, and, after some moments' reflection, concluded to 
go to Ratcliffe's and see what he would say. The rope was removed, and 
they resumed their journey, — the captain still swearing it would do no 
good, as nothing could save him, for he was bound to hang -him that very 
night. 

Life still hung on a thread, however. In the afternoon, when Newcomer 
had been there, Ratcliffe had not returned, and if he were not now at home 
nothing would prevent Harris from carrying out his threat, which he seemed 
determined to execute. That half-mile was the longest ride Newcomer ever 
took. No lights were to be seen ; but it was near midnight, and it might be 
that air were abed. Harris left the prisoner at the gate, in charge of the 
other three, and went up to the house. He knocked on the window, and New- 
comer thought it was the thumping of his own heart. Fortunately Ratcliffe 
was at home, and came hurriedly to the door, without stopping to dress. 
The two conversed in a low tone for some time, when Ratcliffe wag heard to 

exclaim, " I'll be if you do !" and instantly started down towards the 

gate. Coming up to the prisoner, and throwing one arm around his neck, 
while he took his hand in his, he said to him, — 

" Great God! Harry, how fortunate that I am at home !" 
After they had talked a while together, Harris came up again, and called 
Ratcliffe to one side, where they had another protracted conversation in 
a low, whispering tone. While they were thus engaged, a large owl on a 
tree near by began hooting, and was speedily answered by another some 
distance up the road. The three men mounted their horses at once and 
galloped to the road, shouting, at the top of their voices, — 

" Captain, we're surrounded ! This is a trap. Don't you hear the signals ?" 
The captain stepped to the road, listened a moment, and then, with a 

volley of oaths, ordered them back for " a pack of fools to be scared at 

an owl." Still quaking with fear, which did not entirely leave them until 



NEAVCOMER THE SCOUT. 529 

they were fairly away from the place, they resumed their places, the owls 
hooting lustily all the while. 

Harris and Ratcliffe continued their conversation for a few minutes, when 
the former came towards Newcomer with a pistol and some papers in each 
hand, saying, as he gave them to him, — 

" I release you, and restore your property, on the word of Quartermaster 
Ratcliffe. He assures me that you are one of the most important men in 
the South, and a secret agent of the Confederacy. I am very sorry that this 
thing has occurred, and will make any amends in my power. If you desire, 
I will go with you to the Charlotte pike as an escort, or will do you any 
favor you may ask." 

"No," said Ratcliffe: "he must come in and stay all night with me. I 
can't let him go on to-night." 

While standing at the gate, during this conversation, our released prisoner 
sold his pistols to the cavalrymen for Tennessee money. Just at this 
moment, too, a squad of cavalry belonging to Starns's command came by. 
One of them — to whom Newcomer had sold a pistol some weeks before — 
recognized him at once, and shook hands with him very cordially. He 
corroborated Ratcliffe's statement, saying that Newcomer was on very im- 
portant business for the South, which was rendered still more so by the fight 
having begun at Stewart's Creek. A short time was passed in general con- 
versation, when all left except Newcomer, who hitched his horse to the porch 
and went in with Ratcliffe. When sufficient time had elapsed for them to 
be well out of the way. Newcomer said his business was of too much import- 
ance to brook delaj', and he must be off at once. Ratcliffe said if he must 
go he could not urge him to stay. " I will go with you to your horse," said 
he. " Meanwhile, take this to keep you from further trouble. If anybody 
stops you again, just show them this, and you will be passed at once." 

So saying, he took from his pocket a large Government envelope, — of 
which he had an abundance, — and wrote on it, — 

''All right. 

"J. W. Ratcliffe." 

Armed with this, he started again, and reached the pickets of the 5th 
Kentucky Cavalry, who brought him into the city. It was nearly three 
o'clock in the morning when he arrived at the police-office: but the colonel 
was still up, and immediately telegraphed his report to head-quarters. 

The next day, nothing daunted, he set out again, and went, as usual, first 
to Ratcliffe's, where he remained all night, — thence the next morning 
travelled, by way of Hart's Cross-Roads and Caney Springs, to Murfrees- 
borough, reaching that place on the Saturday evening closing the week of 
battles at Stone River, Riding about the town, he observed that nearly 
every house in it was a hospital. Every thing was confusion and excite- 
ment. Immense crowds of straggling soldiers and citizens were gathered 
about the court-house and depot. Commissary and quartermaster stores, 

34 



530 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

artillery, ammunition, and camp equipage, were being loaded on the cars, 
and trains were starting as fast as loaded. An evacuation was evidently on 
hand, and that right speedily ; and he determined to leave as soon as pos- 
sible. The only trouble was how to get out. After wandering around some 
time, seeking an opportunity, he came across a train of small wagons, with 
which the neighboring farmers had come to take home their wounded sons 
and brothers. Quick to embrace opportunities, he saw that now was his 
chance to escape. Dismounting from his horse, he led him by the bridle, 
and walked demurely behind one of these wagons, as though it was in his 
charge. Clad in butternut, and in every outward appearance resembling the 
others accompanying it, the deceit was not discovered, and he safely passed 
all the pickets. It was now nearly two o'clock in the morning, and he rode 
rapidly on, in a cold, driving rain, until fairly benumbed. Some nine miles 
out, he came to a deserted school-house, which he unceremoniously entered, 
leading his horse in after him. Within, a large fireplace and an abun- 
dance of desks suggested the idea of a fire, and a huge blaze roaring and 
crackling on the hearth soon demonstrated its practicability. The nest step 
was to wring the water out of his well-soaked garments and partially dry 
them. Both horse and man enjoyed themselves here until near daybreak, 
when he mounted again and rode on to Ratcliffe's, reaching there about 
three o'clock Sunday afternoon. Here he remained a while to converse with 
his friend, refresh the inner man, and care for his horse, — neither having 
eaten a mouthful since the morning before. Ratclifi"e was rejoiced to see 
him, and wished him to remain longer; but he pushed ahead, and reached 
Nashville late that evening, wellnigh worn out with hunger, fatigue, and 
want of sleep. His report was immediately telegraphed to General Rose- 
crans ; but he had been so long in making his way back that the general 
did not receive it until he had himself entered Murfreesborough. 

Late the next night he started again, with a single piiikil and a small 
stock of needles, pins, and thread. On Monday evening he reached Rat- 
cliffe's, and, staying but two hours, rode on two miles farther to the 
house of one M. II. Perryear, with whom he remained all night. Thence he 
travelled, by way of Hart's Cross-Roads, towards Caney Springs, but before 
reaching the latter place fell in with some of Wheeler's cavalry, with whom 
he rode along friendly and companionly enough. Some of them were old 
acquaintances and very confidential. They were, they said, just on their 
way to burn a lot of Federal wagons at Lavergne and Triune, and, deeming 
him a good fellow well met, invited him to go with them. Thinking that 
there might be some chance to save the wagons, he declined the invitation, 
urging the pressing nature and importance of his mission as an excuse. It 
was soon found, however, that every avenue of escape northward was 
guarded, and the whole country filled with the cavalry, of whom there were, 
in all, about three thousand. There was nothing to do, then, but to leave the 
wagons to their fate and push on, which he did, and, arriving at Caney 
Springs, remained tliere over-night. The next morning the cavalry began 
to loiter back from their marauding expedition in squads of from fifteen to a 



NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 531 

hundred or more, and from them he learned the complete success of the 
enterprise. Making the acquaintance of a lieutenant, he was told that 
they were going at once to Harpeth Shoals, to burn a fleet of boats which 
was then on its way to Nashville. This determined him to abandon tW 
idea of going to Shelbyville, and he accompanied a detachment back as far 
as Hart's Cross-Roads, where they went on picket-duty at a meeting-house 
by the road. Bidding them good-day, he started on alone towards Ilatcliffe's. 
Stopping at Perryear's, he was told that Forrest was in Franklin, that the 
roads were all guarded, and that there was a picket just at Ratcliffe's gate 
Perryear then gave him an open letter of introduction, recommending him 
to all officers and soldiers of the Confederate army as a true and loyal 
Southern man, engaged in business of the highest importance to the Govern* 
ment. With this he again set out, and, as he had been told, found a picket 
at Ratcliife's gate. Requesting to be admitted, he was asked if he was a 
soldier, and, on answering negatively, was passed in without hesitation. 
Ratcliffe corroborated Perryear's statement, saying, furthermore, that Forrest 
was very strict, and that it would be much better for him to remain there 
until they had all gone down the river. 

"But," added he, " if you must go, I'll go with you as far as FrankHn 
and help you through." 

The town was found to be full of cavalry, who were conscripting every man 
whom they could lay hands on. Ratcliffe introduced his companion to Will 
Forrest, — a" brother of the general, and captain of his body-guard. The 
captain was profuse of oaths and compliments, and, withal, so very friendly 
that Newcomer at once told him his story and business, all of which was 
endorsed by Ratcliffe. More oaths and compliments followed. The captain 
was glad to know so important a man, and, by way of business, asked him 
if he had any pistols to sell. 

" No," was the reply ; " I have nothing but a single navy revolver, which 
I carry for my own defence, and which I wouldn't like to part with. But I 
am just going to Nashville for more goods, and, fearing trouble in getting 
away, I thought I would come and see about it." 

" Oh, I guess there will be none," said the captain. " The general wants 
to know something about Nashville, and will be very apt to send you there 
to get the information for him. Come ; let's go and see about it.'' 

The two set forth, and found the general, surrounded by the usual crowd, 
at his hotel. Calling him to one side, the captain pointed out his new 
friend, and, explaining who and what he was, concluded by remarking that 
he wished to go to Nashville for goods, and would bring him any informa- 
tion he desired. The general, not just then in the best of humor, swore 
very roundly that he knew as much about Nashville as he wanted to, — it was 
men he wanted, — and concluded by ordering the captain to conscript his 
friend into either his own or some other company. Turning on his heel, he 
walked briskly away, leaving his brother to his anger and our would-be 
rebel spy to his disappointment. The captain fumed with great, sulphxirous 
oaths, and consoled Newcomer thus wise : — 



532 ARMY rOLICE RECORD. 

" Ile'j a fool, if he is my brother. You are the last man I'll ever 

bring to him to be insulted. But yousha'n't be conscripted. Come with me, 
and I'll help you through. You can go with my company, but not as a 
Boldier, and I will send you to Nashville myself. My company always has 
tlie advance, and there'll be plenty of chances." 

Making a virtue of necessity, this proposition was gladly accepted, and all 
started on the march. By this time Wheeler had come up and taken the 
lead, Forrest following in the centre, and Starns bringing up the rear. 
About eight miles from Franklin the whole command encamped for the 
niglit, and our hero slept under the same blanket with Captain Forrest and 
his lieutenant, — a Texan ranger named Scott, whose chief amusement seemed 
to consist in lassooing dogs while on the march, and listening to their 
yelping as they were pitilessly dragged along behind him. Towards mid- 
night, one of their spies — a Northern man, named Sharp, and formerly in 
the plough business at Nashville — came in from the Cumberland River. 
Captain Forrest introduced Newcomer to him as a man after his own heart, — 
" true as steel, and as sharp as they make 'em." The two spies became inti- 
mate at once, and Sharp belied his name by making a confidant of his new 
acquaintance. He had formerly been in Memphis, and acted as a spy for the 
cotton-burners. More recently he had been employed with Forrest; and now 
he had just come from Harpeth Shoals, where he had learned all about the 
fleet coming up the river, and to-morrow he was to guide the expedition down 
to a place where they could easily be captured and burned. Early next 
morning the march was resumed, and at the crossing of the Hardin pike 
General Forrest and staff were found waiting for them. Upon coming up, 
the captain was ordered to take his company down the Hardin pike, go 
on picket there, and remain until eleven o'clock ; when, if nothing was to 
be seen, he was to rejoin the expedition. These instructions were promptly 
carried out, — a good position being taken on a hill some eight miles from 
Nashville, from which could be had a view of the whole country for many 
miles in every direction. About ten o'clock the captain came to Newcomer 
and said he was going to send him to Nashville himself; at the same time 
giving him a list of such articles as he wished, consisting principally of gray 
cloth, staff-buttons, &c. 

As may be imagined, no time was lost in starting, and still less in getting 
into Nashville, where he arrived in due season to save the fleet. A force 
was at once sent out on the Hillsborough pike to cut off the retreat of the 
rebels, and another on the Charlotte pike to attack them directly. The 
latter force succeeded in striking their rear-guard, and threw them into con- 
fusion, when they hastily fled across the Harpeth River, which was at the 
time very high. Our forces, being principally infantry, could not cross in 
pursuit, but the troops on the Hillsborough pike succeeded in killing, 
wounding, and capturing considerable numbers of them. They were 
thoroughly scattered, however, and the fleet was saved, — which was the 
main object of the expedition. 

General Rosecrans had now been in Murfreesborough several days, and 



NEWCOMER THE SCOUT. 533 

Colonel Truesdall immediately on his arrival sent the scout to that place. 
Here he made a full report, and, having received instructions for anothei 
trip, returned to Nashville the next day to make ready for it. The only 
item of interest on this trip was that at Eagleville he met Wheeler's com- 
mand, by many of whom, and by the general himself, he was well and 
favorably known. Here Wheeler employed him as a secret agent, and 
gave him a permanent pass, which he still retains. Borrowing from one 
of his officers one hundred dollars in Tennessee money, the general gave it 
to him, and instructed him to buy with it certain articles which he men- 
tioned, — among which were gray cloth and staff-buttons, always in demand 
for uniforms. Stopping at ilatcliffe's on his return, he showed him the pass, 
and related the circumstances of getting it, at which the former was highly 
gratified, — " as," said he, "you'll have no more trouble now, Harry." 

At Nashville Wheeler's bill was filled, such not very reliable information 
as Colonel Truesdail and General Mitchel saw fit to give was obtained, 
and another trip began. Wheeler was now at Franklin, quartered in the 
court-house. The goods and information were delivered, much to the grati- 
fication of the general, who forthwith instructed him to return to Nashville 
for more information and late Northern papers. So well known and highly 
esteemed was our man now, that the cashier of the Franklin Branch of the 
Planters' Bank of Tennessee, on this trip, intrusted to him to carry to the 
parent bank the accounts and valuable papers of the branch, which he did, 
delivering them at Nashville. On the way back he stopped at the house of 
one Prior Smith, whom he knew as an ardent rebel and extensive negro- 
dealer. Smith, naturally enough, inquired who his visitor was, and was 
told the usual tale. He then inquired if a good business might not be done 
in running off negro boys from Nashville, buying them cheap there or kid- 
napping them, and if he wouldn't like to engage in it. Newcomer said that 
it would doubtless be a splendid thing, but he did not dare to venture into it: 
it was too public, and might endanger his other operations, more important 
than any private speculations. Smith still insisted, and said he would give 
tea dollars a pound for likely children, and would furnish him with a 
letter of introduction to his "right bower" in Nashville. The right bower 
proved to be Dr. Hudson, who was afterwards called on by Newcomer and 
various other detectives in the secret service, as is narrated in a preceding 
sketch. 

Obtaining the papers desired by Wheeler, and various items of information. 
Newcomer now set out on his sixth and last scout. At Franklin he found 
that Wheeler had gone on to Shelbyville, leaving only a squad of cavalry 
behind. That evening Ratcllffe and himself sat down and wrote out the 
information, sealed it up with the papers in large Government envelopes, 
and gave them to the lieutenant in charge of the company, who sent them 
by a courier to Wheeler. Remaining all night with Ratcliffe, he returned 
the next day to Nashville, where his services were needed in the develop- 
ment of the Hudson and other important cases, full details of which are 
given in other pages of this work. Since then he has been constantly 
£ 



534 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

emploT^ed as a detective, with equal credit to himself and benefit to the 
G vernment. 

In all the annals of police and spy life it -will he difficult to find a career 
marked by such uniform and brilliant success as has attended Harry New- 
comer in his adventurous enterprises. He has never undertaken a case 
whose mystery he did not solve. Friendly and companionable with his own 
sex, he is equally a favorite with the ladies. With many a high-born rebel 
lady he has held converse by the hour, she little dreaming, meanwhile, that 
her strangely pleasant guest was a "Yankee hireling." With a perfect 
self-control and self-confidence, a quick perception, and a faculty of adapting 
himself to circumstances on a moment's notice, he has proved one of the 
most useful men in the secret service of the Army of the Cumljerland. 



General Jolm H. Morgan's lemale Spy. 

On the IGth of December, 1862, while the rebel army was at Murfrees- 
borough and the Army of the Cumberland at Nashville, a lady of middle 
age and fine personal appearance was walking along the road leading from 
the former to the latter place. Between Lavergne and Nashville, not far 
from the Federal pickets, she was overtaken by a gentleman named Blythe, 
— a Union man and a paroled prisoner, — who had that day procured a pass 
from General Bragg to go to Nashville in his buggy. Seeing that she was 
weary with long walking, he invited her to ride, and they proceeded in 
company about three-fourths of a mile, when they came upon a party of 
Federal and rebel ofiicers, consulting about some matter under a flag of 
truce. Blythe, because of his parole, was allowed to pass within the lines, 
but the lady was detained outside until her case could be submitted to head- 
quarters and permission obtained for her entry. While thus delayed, 
Blythe overheard Lieutenant Hawkins, in charge of a rebel flag, saying to 
her, in a cautiously modulated voice, "If they won't let you in you can go 
across the counti-y — about four miles — to my father's, and there they will 
run you through the lines anyhow." This aroused his suspicions, and deter- 
mined him to report her case at the Police Office, with his ideas of her cha- 
racter, and the suggestion that a strict watch be maintained upon her 
movements. 

The next afternoon she was brought in, and immediately sent to head- 
quarters. Here she gave her name as Mrs. Clara Judd, the widow of an 
Episcopal clergyman who had died the year previous, leaving herself and 
seven children, without property and in debt. She was on her return from 
Atlanta, Georgia, whither she had been on a visit to her son, a boy, who 
M'as living there and learning the printing-business. She wish€d to go to 
Minnesota, where the remainder of her children were, and where she then 
claimed to reside. Her story was told in so simple, artles? a manner, and 



GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN'S FEMALE SPY. 535 

with such an air of sincerity, that the sympathies of all present werf 
at once enlisted in her favor, — it not being in the heart of man to doubt, for 
a moment, the truth of all she said. The examination ended, a pass was 
given her to Louisville, and she was allowed to depart in peace. From the 
Police Office she made her way to the Commercial Hotel, where she expected 
to meet an old friend, but, finding that he was out of the city, and that the 
hotel was too full to obtain lodgings, she went to a sutler of her acquaint- 
ance, named Becker, He also was absent ; but she remained over-night 
with his partner and wife, — Mr. and Mrs. Bcaden. Knowing that Blythe 
was at the Commercial Hotel, she wrote him a note, requesting him to call 
and see her on important private business. 

Early in the evening Blythe called at the police department, inquiring if 
Mrs. Judd had come in, and was told that she had just gone, a pass having 
been issued to her. He seemed disappointed, and remarked that they had 
been fooled, — that in his opinion her story was essentially false, and she a bad 
woman, whom it would be well to watch. His reasons for so thinking were 
freely given, and, though they did not entirely destroy the confidence she 
had inspired, they served to weaken it materially, and to excite doubts as 
to the truth of her statements and the honesty of her intentiuns. Return- 
ing to his hotel, the note from Mrs. Judd there awaiting him fully con- 
firmed his previously-formed opinions. So strong were they now, and so 
solicitous was he to fathom and disclose the mischief which he felt to be brew- 
ing, that he again went to the Police Office that evening, taking the note 
with him and exhibiting it to the authorities there. He was advised to call 
as requested, and endeavor to ascertain her true character and designs. He 
did so, and found her at Mr. Beaden's, as stated. After some unimportant 
conversation, she said to him, "Are you loyal?" His decidedly affirmative 
answer she construed to mean that he was a friend to the South and favor- 
able to its cause. It may here be explained that, though Blythe at his first 
meeting did not recognize her, she at once remembered having seen him in 
Murfreesborough, where he had been detained some eight or nine weeks 
before he was allowed to proceed to Nashville. As he seemed while there 
to be under no restraint whatever, she knew nothing of his being a paroled 
prisoner and a Northern man. The fact of his having a pass from General 
Bragg, taken in connection with certain remarks casually made by him, was 
to her proof positive that he was a Southerner and a rebel. To this very 
natural mistake she was indebted for all the misfortune that eventually 
befell her. 

Completely self-deceived, she immediately took him into her confidence, 
and entered upon an explanation of her business and plans. She was going, 
she said, to Louisville, for the purpose of purchasing quinine and other 
medicines for the Southern Confederacy, together with a considerable 
amount of dry-goods and groceries for herself and others. But this was 
only a portion of her business, and of no Importance in comparison with the 
remainder. John Morgan was about to make a raid upon the Louisville & 
Nashville Railroad, and was only waiting for information as to the strength 



536 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

of the garrisons and the disposition of troops along its track, necessary to 
deteruiine the most available point of attack. This information she had 
engaged to obtain and furnish to him on her return to Gallatin, where 
certain of his men were to meet her, by appointment, on a fixed day. 
This day was now at hand ; and accordingly she was anxious to start for 
Louisville the next morning, so that she might have ample time to purchase 
her goods and be back to Gallatin on the day appointed. Unfortunately, 
however, her pass did not allow her to leave Nashville until the morning 
after, and she wished he would try and exchange it for one allowing 
her to go on the morrow. Blythe obligingly consented, and farther said 
that, as it would save her a good deal of trouble in Louisville, he would get 
her a pass to go and return as far as Gallatin. "With the old pass he imme- 
diately went a third time to the office, stated his wish, and related the con- 
versation that had passed between himself and Mrs. Judd. Colonel Trues- 
dail gave him the desired pass, and insisted upon his accompanying her to 
Louisville, at the same time instructing him to afford her every facility for 
the perfection of her plans, but to neither encourage nor restrain her. 

Blythe returned with the new pass according to promise. In the conver- 
sation that ensued, he warned her of the danger of the business she was 
about to embark in, cautioning her as to the watchfulness of the Federal 
authorities, and endeavored to dissuade her therefrom. His advice, how- 
ever, though well meant and kindly enough received, was of no avail. It 
was her duty, she said, to do all that she could for the South ; and, as they 
were God's chosen people, she was not afraid of any harm befalling her. 
Seeing that she was determined in her purpose, Blythe affected a deep 
solicitude in her welfare, and finally told her he would postpone his business 
for the present and go with her to Louisville then, instead of v<'aiting a few 
days as he had intended. It would be a great accommodation, as well as 
pleasure, to him, he remarked, laughingly, for then he could sit with her in 
the ladies' car, — no small matter on a train literally jammed with passengers, 
as that one usually was. Madam was highly pleased at this exhibition of 
kindness, and with many thanks endeavored to show her gratitude therefor. 
Thenceforward she placed implicit confidence in Blythe, and unreservedly 
told him all her plans, together with much of her past history and experience. 
This was her second trip, she said. The previous one had been quite profit- 
able to her, and had enabled her to furnish a large amount of valuable in- 
formation to the rebels. 

Throughout the entire journey to Louisville she was ever on the alert 
for the smallest scrap of information. At every station, out of the window 
would go her head, and the bystanders be plied with guarded questions 
concerning the strength of the place, means of defence, number of troops 
and names of regiments there, &c. Blythe was evidently annoyed, and 
time and again pulled her dress, begging her "for God's sake to sit down 
and keep quiet," or she would attract attention and ruin both herself and 
him. She replied tliat it was a part — and a vei'y important part- -of her 
business to observe, make inquiries, and take notes ; she must do it. 



GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN'S FEMALE SPY. 537 

At Louisville Blythe paid her every attention, assisted her in her purchases 
introduced her to one of the best dry-goods houses in the city, and went with 
her to New Albany, where she bought several hundred dollars' worth of drugs 
and medicines. Here she was well acquainted, — a fact which she explained 
by saying that she had made purchases there before. These drugs she intended 
to pack in a trunk with a false bottom, but was told by BIythe that it would 
not be necessary, as he would see that her trunk was passed without exami- 
nation. Occasionally he would absent himself for several hours, account- 
ing for this by representing that he was engaged in buyiug a large stock of 
goods, with which he designed returning immediately to Murfreesborough. 
One day he was taken quite ill, and was attended and nursed by her in the 
kindest manner. In addition to her confidence, he seemed now to have 
gained her affections. She devoted herself to him as only women do to those 
■whom they love, — anticipating his 'slightest wishes, and providing for his 
every want in the most warm-hearted and loving manner, Blythe's pre- 
tended sickness was soon over, but it left him weak ; and he wished her to 
remain at Louisville another day. No ; she could not stay. Morgan's men 
had made a positive engagement to meet her that night at Gallatin, and she 
would not disappoint them for the world. She was to tell them, then and 
there, all that she had seen. and heard down the road, and to advise them where 
to tap it. In return, they were to assist her in getting her trunks through 
the lines, which could easily be done by putting them in the bottom of the 
wagon-bed and covering them with fodder. Seeing that she could not be 
induced to remain, BIythe determined to return with her. Flattered by this 
mark of attention and appreciation, she was highly delighted, and more 
affectionate than ever. Arrangements were at once made for the journey, 
BIythe in the mean while visiting General Boyle, explaining the whole 
matter to him, and procuring an order dispensing with the usual exami- 
nation of baggage in their case, and also telegraphing to Colonel Trues- 
dail, at Nashville, to have them arrested at Mitchellsville, just before reaching 
Gallatin. 

On the way back she was in the best of spirits, and could hardly refrain 
from frequent exhibitions of her elation at the success of their schemes. 
Blvthe begged her to be careful, or she would expose herself and him to ruin. 
" You know," said he, "if any thing should happen to you it will get me 
into trouble, and that would make you feel bad; wouldn't it?" He asked 
her if she was not afraid of being watched, — if she did not think she was 
already suspected, — seeking by this means to prepare her mind for the arrest 
which was soon to occur, and at the same time to allay any suspicions she 
mio-ht otherwise entertain of his complicity therein. She replied that she 
was, and that there was then in that very car a person whom she believed 
to be watching her. She betrayed considerable anxiety, and seemed quite 
Mueasv about the matter for some time, but finally fell into her usual care- 
jess mood. At Mitchellsville she took on board two large trunks of goods and 
clothing, left there on her former trip because of her having had too many to 
get safely away at that time without exciting suspicion. Just after leaving 



538 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

Mitch(;llsville, Blytlie said to her, " Xow, this is a dangerous business you are 
in ; and you may not get through. At Gallatin I shall leave you, but will go 
straight through to Murfreesborough ; and if you have any word to send I 
will take it with pleasure to anybody you may name." In reply, she wished 
he would see Lieutenant Hawkins and tell him that she had arrived safely at 
Gallatin with her goods, but that there was a larger force there than she had 
expected to find, and she might be troubled in getting out ; or, if Lieutenant 
Hawkins was not then at Murfreesborough, he might tell any of Morgan's men, 
and their general would be sure to get the news and devise some means for 
her assistance. At this time, as well as on previous occasions, she seemed to 
be on \ery intimate terms with Morgan and to rely implicitly upon him and 
his followers. She furtlier informed Blythe that her home was in Winches- 
ter, Tennessee, but that she was on her way to Atlanta, Georgia, where her 
son had a situation in the Ordnance department, and that the knitting- 
machine purchased by her was intended as a pattern for the manufacture of 
others, there being nothing of the kind in the South. 

This conversation was scarcely concluded when both were arrested, and 
Blythe — according to previous arrangement — roughly handled. Mrs. Judd 
turned very pale, and was strangely excited ; though she seemed more 
affected by Blythe's situation and danger than her own. Blythe, however, 
seemed to take it coolly enough, and as a matter of course, — which but the 
more increased the sorrow of Mrs. Judd, it being for her only that he had thus 
ventured and lost. Bui regrets were useless now, and both were brought on 
to Nashville at once. Mrs. Judd was put under guard at a hotel, and 
assured that Blythe would be hung the next morning. At this intelligence 
she became quite distracted, begged and implored to be heard in his favor, 
asserting with broken voice and tearful eyes that he was an innocent man and 
that the guilt and blame of the whole transaction were hers alone. Making 
no impression upon those about her, she went so far as to write and 
send to head-quarters a petition that he might be spared from a punishment 
he did not deserve. Blythe, of course, was released at once ; but she did not 
know it, and to this day remains ignorant of his real fate and location. Her 
baggage was examined and found to contain many hundred dollars' worth 
of contraband goods, — unquestionable evidences of her guilt. Among its 
contents was a Bible, with Blythe's name written in it by herself, which she 
had purchased in Louisville, intending to present it to him when they should 
meet again in Murfreesborough. 

The circumstances, when known, created not a little excitement in army 
circles, and the case was personally examined by the general commanding 
and his staiF. The crime was the highest known to military law; the im- 
portance of the consequences involved in the success or defeat of the 
scheme, almost incalculable. In short, it was one of those little pivots on 
which the fortunes of a campaign or the fate of an army might turn. For 
such an offence the only adequate punishment was death ; but the person 
implicated was a woman ; and that reverence for the sex which brave men 
ever feel would not allow the application of so extreme a penalty. To pass 



NORRIS THE KIDNAPPER. 539 

her lightly bj, however, could not be reconciled with a sense of duty ; and 
it was deemed necessary to make an example of her, by confiaing her in the 
military prison at Alton, Illinois, during the war, where she is at this 
present writing. 



ITorris the Kidnapper. 

One of the most marked results of the war has been the escape from rebel 
masters of large numbers of slaves. Flocking to our camps, where they are 
universally known as " contra])ands," they have been made useful in a 
multitude of ways by the Army of the Cumberland. As cooks, as waiters, 
as teamsters, as laborers, in the hospitals, in Avarehoiises, in stables, on the 
fortifications, on steamers and railways, they have been constantly employed 
with advantage to themselves and the Government. By as much as they 
have been a gain to us they have been a loss to the rebels, who rely upon 
them not only for their army labor but for the cultivation of their plantations 
and the production of the supplies necessary for the support of their troops in 
the field. At first no particular caution seemed to be exercised to prevent 
their escape, or any considerable efforts put forth for their recovery. Their 
whilom masters were apparently content to let them go or stay as they 
pleased, congratulating themselves that it was simply so much pork and 
corn-bread saved when they abandoned the lean larder of a Southern plant- 
ation for the ample store of a Yankee camp. Those left behind were 
enough for all their present needs, and too many to be decently fed and 
clothed from the scanty crops and scantier stocks of the Southern Con- 
federacy. 

With the last New Year, however, another policy seems to have been 
inaugurated, either by the civil authorities at Richmond or by the military 
leaders in camp. Whether it was that the number of fugitives had become 
alarmingly large, or that the influence of the emancipation policy was 
feared, whether it was the dread of an armed insurrection or a general 
stampede to the Federal lines, or whether it was all of these combined, that 
caused this change of policy, is not easy, and not necessary, to determine 
here. Suffice it to say that measures were at this time taken to remove 
into the interior and southward these slaves in Tennessee and other border 
States that could be reached, and to recover from the Federal lines as many 
as possible of those who had escaped thither. The spies and scouts of the 
secret service soon scented this new game, and were on the alert. It was 
found that considerable rewards had been offered in Murfreesborough and 
other places in the Southern Confederacy for the delivery of negroes within 
the rebel army lines. Emissaries were found in Nashville, engaged in trap- 
ping and carrying away by force such likely negroes as they could lay their 



540 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

hinds upon, — at the same time acting as spies and furnishing the rebels 
with important information. 

Measures were at once taken for the detection and punishment of those 
engaged in this nefarious traffic. A suitable person was despatched to 
Franklin, Tennessee, where resided several men formerly well known as 
extensive negro-dealers, for the purpose of obtaining reliable information 
of the parties in the business and the means by which it was carried 
on. With one of these men — J. Prior Smith, who had one million dollars 
of Southern money for investment in negroes — this agent became very inti- 
mate, and finally engaged to purchase for him men, women, and children. 
For likely children fi-om one to eight and ten years of age he was to be 
paid ten dollars per pound ; and for every man and woman that he would get 
out of Nashville and vicinity he was to be liberally rewarded. Smith also 
gave him letters of introduction to two prominent citizens of Nashville, both 
of whom entered cheerfully into the scheme and suggested various means of 
carrying on the business. One of them — Dr. J. R. Hudson — was particularly 
interested, and for months busied himself in kidnapping j^oung boys and 
running them South. He tampered with the ofiicers of the engineer corps 
in charge of the fortifications then being constructed, offering them half the 
profits, or five hundred dollars each, for every man they would permit him 
to steal out of their squad of laborers. He would procure passes for him- 
self and servants to go out to his farm, and the servants would never come 
back. He would send them out with his wood-wagons, and when once 
beyond the lines they would be passed on to their destination and sold. 
His speculations, however, were interfered with materially by the Army 
Police ; but he was indefatigable in the business, and only ceased trapping 
negroes when trapped himself. 

It was found, too, in addition to this organized scheme of theft in which 
these unprincipled speculators were embarked, that some of the night police 
of Nashville, employed by the city government, had engaged in a similar 
business. Scai'cely a night passed but some fugitive slave was arrested and 
jailed by them, on the demand of pretended owners or their agents. For 
such services they were paid from five dollars to one hundred for each 
arrest. James A. Steele testified that he had caught, within three weeks, 
six negroes, for which he had received about one hundred dollars in all. 
J. F. Ingalls testified that he had assisted in the arrest of six negroes for 
Dr. Oden, and received for the same ten dollars. James Hinton paid him 
forty dollars for arresting ten negroes belonging to a relative. He had also 
been approached by other parties, and been offered from fifty to two hundred 
dollars each for the arrest of other negroes, many of whom wore in Govern- 
ment employ. AVilliam Mayo was paid sixty-six dollars for arresting a man, 
a woman, and two children for Watt Owens. Mr. Gillock was to pay him 
from fiftj- to seventy-five dollars for arresting his negro woman. Mr. Everett 
paid him twenty-five dollars for a like service, Mr. Hatch ten dollars, and 
Mrs. Cunningham had offered him twenty-five dollars to get back a woman 
fur whose arrest she had already paid fifty dollars, and who had .'»gair 



NORRIS THE KIDNAPPER. 54| 

escaped. Similar revelations were made by other policemen and officers of 
Nashville. 

The records of the Army Police Office abound with cases of reported ab- 
ductions, — one of which may serve as a sample of the remainder. In the 
pleasant little village — or " city," as it is styled — of Edgefield, just across the 
Cumberland River from Nashville, resided, before and in the early days of 
the war, a certain Rev. Dr. McFerran, or, as he was commonly called, 
Preacher McFerran. The fortunate possessor of a score or more of negroes, he 
was also otherwise blessed with an abundance of this world's goods. Waxing 
wealthy and fat, he fared sumptuously every day, until the approach of the 
Union army, when, having preached the gospel according to Jeff Davis, he 
found it advisable to travel southward. His departure was considerably 
hurried, — too much so to allow of his taking with him the larger and more 
valuable portion of his movable property, — the negroes above mentioned. Left 
to shift for themselves, they did much as they pleased, — some running away 
and others remaining. About a year afterward McFerran turned up at Con- 
nerville, Alabama, and began to think it would be a good idea to have his 
negroes there too ; they certainly would be worth considerably more than 
where they were. He accordingly cast about for some means of getting 
them out of Yankee hands and into his own. 

He puts himself in communication with one Silas Norris, — a carpenter by 
trade, living in Edgefield, and who for some years had been acting as 
constable. Norris being a man that will do any thing for pay, however 
dirty the job, an arrangement is made between them by which McFerran 
is to get his negroes, — all that are left of them, seven in number, — and Norris 
eight hundred dollars. Norris at once begins preparations, and, as a first 
step, buys a wagon, for which he pays thirty-five dollars. He engages two 
men — William Bradlove and James Stuart — to go with him, and promises 
the former one hundred and the latter two hundred dollars for their services. 
The next thing, and the most difficult, is to catch the negroes and load them 
into the wagon. They lived in a cabin about two miles from Nashville, 
outside of the picket-lines. The most feasible plan seemed to be to go in 
force and capture them at night. Accordingly, he takes with him five men, 
— some of them armed, — and in the middle of the night makes a descent 
upon their cabin, and has them in his hands before they fairly know what 
IS the matter. Four of the men he chains by locking their legs together 
with trace-chains, and fastens them together by twos. In an adjoining 
cabin are four other negroes, belonging to James Anderson, son-in-law of 
McFerran, in three of whom Norris claims to have some interest. While 
his hand is in, he concludes he may as well take them along too, and they 
are surprised and secured in the same way. Resistance is vain : yet they 
sti-uggle as best they can, howling, begging, and imploring not to be taken 
" down Souf." They might as well appeal to a stone. He knows no mercy, 
and shows none. Once in the wagon, they are driven off as rapidly as hia 
four horses can draw them. By twisting and turning from one road to 



542 



AEMY POLICE RECORD. 







p!%' 




Norris kidnapping Negroes, 



another, he evades the Federal forces, and in about eight days reaches his 
destination, Huntsville, Alabama, ■when the negroes are turned over to their 
ministerial master and Norris receives his reward. 

This -was during the last weeks of December, 18G2. On his return the 
next month, Norris was arrested, and, after a careful examination, convicted 
of kidnapping and sent to the military prison at Alton, where he yet 
remains. His well-merited punishment had a good effect,— largely diminish- 
ing the number of similar transactions, previously of such common occur- 
rence ; and the subsequent energetic movements of the Army Police have 
weilnigh ended the business within the bounds of their operations. 



PHILLIPS; TEE BOGUS KENTUCKY UNIONIST. 543 



Phillips, tlie Bogus Kentucky Unionist. 

The arrest of the parties mentioned in the sketch headed " The Pseudo 
Sanders," which will be found on preceding pages, was for a time the 
town talk. Gossips discussed it in every conceivable aspect, and Rumor 
found employment for her hundred tongues. The hotels, the steamers, the 
railways, the bar-rooms, and even the streets of Cairo, Illinois, were full 
of it. It penetrated the sanctity of private residences, and sat down with 
their inmates around the family hearth. The doctor and captain were soon 
recognized, pointed out, and everywhere made the cynosure of wondering 
eyes. Speculation was busy with their probable fate, and expressions of 
sympathy or scowling looks of contemptuous indifference greeted them, ac- 
cording to the character and feelings of those whom they saw and met. Mrs. 
Ford, too, was not forgotten in all this. Pitied and despised in turn, she 
was thought and spoken of by many ; but, not being visible to the rabble, 
she was hardly the object of so much interest as her two companions. 

Ou the evening following the arrest, while the doctor was comfortably 
ensconced within an arm-chair in the sitting-room of the St. Charles, he was 
accosted by a fine-looking, elderly gentleman, who introduced himself 
as Mr. Phillips, of Louisville, Kentucky. For the liberty thus taken he 
apologized by sa3nng that he had heard him spoken of as a Confederate sur 
geon under arrest and in trouble, and that if he could be of any assistance 
to him he would most cheerfully render it. He lived, he said, three miles 
from Louisville, just outside of the Federal lines, and was there known as 
a Union man of the straitest sect, — so much so that General Boyle had 
given him a pass to come into the city and go out at will. He had taken 
oaths of allegiance — bitter and detestable as they were—out of policy, 
and for appearance's sake. His heart, however, was with the South, in 
whose service part of his family now were. His son-in-law, Dr. Keller, was 
chief surgeon on Hindman's staff, and his own son held a position in the 
rebel army. He OAvned a plantation in Mississippi, which had formerly been 
well stocked with negroes. He had heard, however, while at home, that the 
Yankees had overrun the plantation and run off the negroes, and that most 
of them had been brought up the river to Cairo. He had at once procured 
from General Boyle a pass to Cairo and a letter of introduction to General 
Tuttle, in which he was endorsed as a sound, thorough-going Union man, in 
whom all confidence could be placed, and stating also that he was now 
in search of certain negroes supposed to be in Cairo, and that any assistance 
rendered him in their recovery would be considered a particular favor by the 
writer, who regarded it as no more than an act of justice to a loyal man. On 
lr.3 strength of these representations he had recovered the negroes, and was 
now only waiting for a boat to take them home with him. In the mean while, if 
he could be of any service, he had only to mention it. He had some money 
left, and if it was money the doctor wanted, it was at his command. If 
there was not enough of it, he would procure more for him. He would sign 



544 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

a bond, would endorse any statement, would make any sort of representationa 
to General Tuttle in his behalf, and, with the character given him by his 
letters of recommendation, he thought he could arrange the matter with the 
general and procure his release. 

The doctor thanked him warmly, but said that it would be of no use, as it 
was beyond the power of General Tuttle to do any thing in the premises. He 
had been implicated in smuggling contraband goods through the lines, and 
had been ordered to be sent back to General Rosecrans, to be dealt with for 
the violation of his parole. His own case was bad enough, to be sure ; but it 
was not for himself he cared. His life was worth nothing, and he would die 
any time to serve the Confederacy: it did not matter whether he ever 
returned to the land of his love. It was not for his own sake he wished 
it, but to relieve the sufferings and save the lives of his companions-in-arms. 
There was a great scarcity of all kinds of medicines in the South, and hun- 
dreds were dying for the want of them. He had hoped, in his poor way, to 
do something for them, but he had been betrayed by a pretended friend. But 
even this failure, involving the consequences it did, was a small matter com- 
pared with the detention of his fellow-traveller. That was a public calamity 
which it was of the utmost importance to remedy at once ; for, to speak confi- 
dentially, Captain Denver was not Captain Denver at all, but George N. 
Sanders, just returning from England with the acceptance of the Confede- 
rate loan, by the Rothschilds, in his pocket. This he had managed to save 
from the general confiscation; and if any way could now be devised to 
get him away and through the lines immediately, all would yet be well, and 
the Confederacy financially be recognized as an independent nation. As for 
himself, he had no particular desire to go again to Nashville if it could be 
avoided, but Sanders must be helped through at all hazards, without refer- 
ence to himself or anybody else. Some time previously, it will be remembered, 
the noted George N. Sanders escaped to England through Canada ; and this 
tale was concocted to correspond with that event and seem plausible. 

During this narration Phillips was deeply interested, and at its close 
so much excited that he could hardly speak. After gazing abstractedly for a 
few moments, he invited the doctor to his room, where they could talk more 
privately and with less danger. There he repeated that, though professedly 
Union, he was heart and hand with the South, and always had been. 
He had aided it at every opportunity, — had smuggled through clothing, medi- 
cines, arms, and ammunition, had acted as a spy, and when Bragg was 
threatening Louisville had sent his negroes to him, time and again, with 
valuable information, and on one very important occasion had gone himself. 
His earnest professions of loyalty had completely deceived the Federal 
authorities, and he was trusted by General Boyle as a friend, and the stand- 
ing thus acquired had made him of considerable service to his Southern 
friends, and he had expected to continue in his assumed character somewhile 
longer ; but now he thought he could do more good by throwing off the 
mask. 

" Come straight back to Louisville with me," he said. " I will put you 



PHILLIPS, THE BOGUS KENTUCKY UNIONIST. 545 

and Sanders both through, and go myself in the bargain. I am tired of 

Yankee rule ; don't care a for them, and ask no odds. I've got money 

enough, every thing I want, and can get along without them. It will be 
easy enough to get away. Nobody will suspect me, and I can get a pass 
from Boyle to go anywhere. I've got some of the best horses in the country 
— can't be beat for speed and bottom ; and we will fix up a light wagon, fill 
it with medicines most needed, and be away beyond reach before anybody' 11 
think of such a thing as pursuit." 

The doctor assenting, an immediate return to Louisville was agreed upon, 
where the three were to meet again and make all necessary arrangements 
for the trip. On reaching that city, the doctor went at once to see General 
Boyle, when the following colloquy ensued : — 

" General, do you know a man by the name of Phillips, living some three 
miles out of town ?" 

" Oh, yes, very well. He's a particular friend of mine." 

"Do you know his wife and his daughter Mrs. Dr. Keller?" 

" Yes, — know the whole family." 

"What is their position, general, on the war question ?" 

" Oh, they are loyal. He's one of the very best Union men we have 
in Kentucky." 

"Ah ? But, general, what would you think if I should say I had made an 
arrangement with him to poison you ?" 

" That you were mad as a March hare." 

" Well, I don't mean to say that I have exactly any thing of that kind 
against him ; but I do say that he is not a Union man at all, but, on the con- 
ti'ary, a rebel and a spy." 

" How do you know that ?" 

" Oh, simply enough. He told me so himself; that's all. I met him in 
Cairo a day or two since, and we had a long talk." (Here the doctor nar- 
rated the circumstances, and gave the conversation as it occurred.) " I'll fix 
it upon him in any way you wish. He shall give money to anybody you 
name, to buy contraband goods and medicines with. He shall leave his 
house on any night you say, in any kind of a wagon you say. You shall 
examine that wagon, and in it you shall find contraband goods. You shall 
arrest him at any point you please, and you will find our man Conkliu 
[Denver] in the wagon, blacked and disguised as a negro. You shall find 
upon him letters to Southern rebels ; or you may secrete yourself behind a 
screen and hear him tell his own story, how he has deceived you, how 
he smuggled goods through to the rebels times without number, how he 
kept Bragg informed of what was going on last summer, and how he 
is now preparing to go South with an amount of medicines, important 
despatches, &c." 

" Good God ! Is it possible that he is such a man ? I would have staked 
my life on his loyalty and good faith. But can't you stay and work the case 
up for me ?" 

" I will stay to-morrow and do what I can ; but the next day I must be ia 

35 



546 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

Nashville. I will arrange matters so that your own men can fix the whole 
thing upon him, but I am expected back day after to-morrow, and dare not 
stay longer." 

" I don't like to trust them: it's too important a case. I'll telegraph to the 
Chief of Police, and, if your business isn't a matter of too much importance, 
get permission for you to stay a few days. How will that do V 

" Very well." 

The doctor then took his leave, and the next morning was shown a 
despatch authorizing him to remain in Louisville so long as General Boyle 
should require his assistance. 

That day Phillips came to see the doctor at the Gait House. The project 
was discussed more at length, and a plan of operations partially agreed upon. 
At length Phillips said to the doctor, — • 

" Do you know my son-in-law. Dr. Keller?" 

" Very well ; have seen him a hundred times." 

" Do you know his wife?" 

"Yes: I met her frequently in Memphis. She was connected with some 
aid society there, and I saw her often about the hospitals." 

" Did you ? She's at my house now, and will be crazy to see you." 

The doctor saw that he was getting himself into a scrape. Known to 
Mrs. Keller by another name and in another character, how should he meet 
her now, in new garb and guise, without revealing the deception and 
frightening away his game ? The only escape from the dilemma was to put 
a bold face on the matter, and by sheer audacity overcome any difficulties 
or obstacles that might be thrown in his way by reason of old acquaintance. 
He would be very happy to meet the lady, he said, but could not call on her. 
He did not think it wise to leave the hotel, and especially to go beyond the 
lines. It was only a matter of courtesy that he was allowed the liberty 
he enjoyed. Charged with breaking his parole, strict military usage would 
demand close confinement under guard, and he was anxious to do nothing to 
which the least exception could now be taken. Any further mishap to him 
would endanger the success of their new enterprise, and it was vitally 
important that Sanders should get through this time without fail. If his 
daughter could be induced to call upon him at the Gait House, it would 
confer a personal favor upon him, and would relieve him from the necessity 
or temptation of doing any thing incompatible with the terms of his parole 
and the strictest sense of honor. Phillips acknowledged the justness of this 
view of the case, and promised that Mrs. Keller should visit him the next 
day. 

Sure enough, the next morning in came Mrs. Keller. Hardly had 
Bhe alighted from her carriage when the doctor welcomed her in his most 
graceful manner. 

"How do you do, Mrs. Keller? I am delighted to see you. How well 
you are looking ! How are the children ? When did you leave Memphis ? 
How long have you been in Louisville ? When did you hear from Dr. 
Keller? How did you leave all the friends in Memphis ?" 



PHILLIPS, THE BOGUS KENTUCKY UNIONIST- 547 

And so for full five miautes the doctor Itiunched at her question after 
question, wita the utmost rapidity of his rapid utterance, scarcely giving 
her time to hear, much less answer, the first before her attention was called 
to a second, a third, and so on, until she was so hopelessly confused and per- 
plcxed that she could say just nothing at all. By the time she had re- 
covered, the doctor, with diplomatic skill, had diverted the conver-sation into 
new channels, still giving her no time to advert to their acquaintance in 
Memphis and the spirit of change which had since come over him. At 
length, by shrewd management, she edged in this simple question :— 

" When did you see Dr. Keller last?" 

The road now being clear, the doctor answered more at leisure, but not 
less elaborately : — 

" It has been a good while, — some five or six months. I have been a pri- 
soner three months or more, and General Hindman had gone to Arkansas 
some time before I was captured, and I have not seen the doctor since 
he left with the general." 

" I had no idea you had been so long a prisoner. How did you happen to 
be taken ? and how did you escape ?" 

"We were taken in the Confederate hospital at luka. Ordinarily, sur» 
geons are not treated as prisoners, but are considered non-combatants. We, 
however, were retained as hostages for the return of certain Federals im- 
prisoned by General Price in violation, as the Yankee commander alleged, 
of the rules of war and the cartel agreed upon by the contending par- 
ties. A very intimate friend of mine, — Dr. Scott, — also of the Confederate 
army, and captured with me, married a cousin of the Federal General 
Stanley ; and through the influence which this relationship gave him we 
were released on parole, the remainder being still in captivity." 

The doctor then proceeded with a relation of the occurrences of the past 
two or three days, dwelling particularly upon the unfortunate detention of 
Sanders. Mrs. Keller's sympathy was at once excited. She entered 
warmly into their plans and purposes, and freely offered every assistance that 
it was in her power to render. She would go herself, but circumstances over 
which she had no control would not permit it. She had a younger, unmar- 
ried sister, however, who was very anxious to accompany them, and she 
would dress her in boy's clothes to avoid suspicion and trouble. 

Just then Phillips himself came in, flushed with excitement, and eager to 
be off at once. His whole mind was bent on the enterprise, and he could not 
be easy until they were fairly started. His arrangements were all perfected, 
and he knew just where he could buy every thing he wanted; he would take 
the articles out to his house a few at a time, and nobody would imagine any 
thing out of the way. He could easily make two trips a day ; and it wouldn't 
take long at that rate to load the wagon. He wanted every thing ready, so 
that they could be off at a moment's notice. 

"Certainly," said the doctor, thoughtfully; "it will be well to have every 
Ihirg ready. But since I saw you last I've been thinking about this thing of 
carrying contraband goods with us, and I've about concluded it won't do. 



548 ARMY rOLICE RECORD. 

It is true that the medicines would do an immense amount of good, — possibly 
save many lives ; but there's Denver: he must be got through, anyhow. It 
won't do to risk any thing. We must have a sure thing of it this time. 
Then, again, I don't want to act in bad faith by violating my parole. Our 
people want such things badly enough, but they must get them in some 
other way. It will be glory enough for us to get Denver through : 'twill be 
better than winning a battle ; whole generations will rise up and call ua 
blessed. Don't let us attempt too much and spoil it all. Better avoid all 
needless risk, and stick to one thing. We are made men if we succeed 
in that." 

But Phillips was not convinced. He didn't believe there was any risk 
at all, and wasn't going with an empty wagon, — not he. It should be 
packed as full as it could hold with drugs and other needed goods. He had 
money, and was going to use it ; and if he, the doctor, was afraid to go with 
him, he might find some other means of getting there. 

To this, the doctor only replied that he still thought it unwise, but he was 
not the man to back out of any enterprise. Still, he would not violate his 
parole, — would not knowingly engage in any contraband trade. But Denver 
was under no such restraint, and, said the doctor, — 

" You had better talk with him. He knows just what is wanted. He's a 
mild, quiet fellow, however, and never intrudes himself upon anybody's 
notice. lie wouldn't think of suggesting such a thing; but if you furnish 
him money he'll buy just what can be used to the best advantage. He can 
buy and you can load the goods ; but I don't want to know any thing 
about them. You can be ready to start on such a day, and I will meet you 
at some station on the railroad and take passage with you there." 

Phillips was satisfied with this, and at once sought out Denver and gave 
him one hundred and fifty-five dollars, — all the money he had with him, — 
directed him to a particular store where he could get all the quinine, &c. 
that he wanted, told him to buy as mvich as he thought best and pay this 
money down as an earnest of good faith in making the purchase. In the 
mean while he would draw from the bank as much more as would be needed, 
and with it he could settle the bill the next day. Denver went as directed, 
but found that the merchant would sell him nothing without a special permit 
from General Boyle. This was reported to the doctor, who promised to have 
that obstacle removed without delay 

While Phillips and Denver are arranging other matters, the doctor goes to 
General Boyle, reports progress, and asks him to issue a permit for the sale 
of the quinine. The general hesitates, doesn't exactly like to do it, and 
finally asks if they can't mark some boxes " quinine," nail them up, load 
them into his wagon, and have them found there when arrested. "But no," 
he continues: "that won't do at all. He'd beat us in that game. We 
couldn't show that he had any thing contraband in his wagon. Of course 
he'd deny it, and it would be necessary for us to prove it. Can't we borrow 
enough to answer our purposes ?" 

" Possibly ; but it would be better for the Government to buy it, if you 



MOORE AND BLUE, THE SCOUTS. 549 

won't let him do it. It would be worth more than five or six hundred dollars 
to get rid of such an arrant old traitor and spy." 

" I guess we can get along by borrowing." 

The borrowing project very nearly defeated the whole matter, by the delaj 
incurred ; but the quinine was finally obtained, given to Denver, and safely 
packed in Phillips's wagon. Every thing was now ready for a start. The 
doctor took the cars for the place of meeting, and Phillips set out in his 
wagon, Denver, disguised as a negro, driving. The doctor arrived safely at 
the appointed rendezvous ; but not so Phillips. He was scarcely well started 
when he was arrested and brought back to Louisville. Too proud and 
haughty to betray the least emotion, there was no "scene" at any time 
during his arrest or examination, and he vouchsafed not a word in his own 
behalf. Defence there could be none. His guilt was too patent for doubt. 
Conviction followed as a matter of course ; and, instead of finding a home on 
his Mississippi plantation, he became an involuntary recipient of the widely- 
dispensed hospitalities of Camp Chase. 



Moore and Blue, tlie Scouts. 



Romance in real life is not less abundant than in novels. The history of 
many a man unknown to fame, if written and published, would prove in- 
finitely more fascinating to the reader than thousands of the pages of fiction 
so eagerly devoured. In times of peace these heroes of unwritten adventure 
are seldom withdrawn from the quiet into which they have settled, and the 
story of their lives — told only to a few friends — passes at their death, with 
all its wonder and romance, into the great storehouse of unremembered 
things. Not so in these days of war. The active, the bold, and the daring 
have opened to them an unlimited field for the exercise of their peculiar 
characteristics. They are brought into contact with thousands to whom 
tliey would otherwise never have been known, their history is told and heard, 
and ultimately finds its way to the public in the columns of the newspaper 
or the pages of the book. Thus has it been with the two whose names head 
this chapter. Theirs has been a strange, varied, and sometimes lawless life. 
Too-ether they have wandered over many wild and unknown regions, passed 
through many scenes of interest and danger, and, by the experience and 
sa"-acity thus acquired, made themselves of no little service to their conntry 
during the present war. Firm and constant friends in all their adventures 
and trials, their story is not less remarkable for its intrinsic interest than 
as that of a modern Damon and Pythias. 

In 185G two young men — Frank M. Blue, formerly of Michigan, but now 
from Illinois, and Henry W. Moore, of Brooklyn, New York — met in Leaven- 
worth City, Kansas, whither they had come for the purpose of pre-empting 
land in that Territory. Taking a fancy to each other, they set out for the 
F 



550 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

interior in company. At Ossawatamie they met John Brown, joined him 
in scouting after border-ruffians, and participated in the fight at Hickory 
Point, where Brown, his son, and twenty-seven men routed forty of them 
strongly posted in a blacksmith's shop, by backing up against it a load 
of hay and burning them out. Leaving Brown, they nest went to Jennison's 
camp at Mound City, which was made in such a shape as to resemble a group 
of hay-stacks. While here, they, in company with eight others, crossed the 
Missouri River, surprised the town of Rushville, captured thirty border- 
ruffians and a number of the citizens, broke their guns, and carried away 
their horses, money, watches, &c. Afterwards they joined the Utah Expe- 
dition under General A. S. Johnston, and with it went through to Salt Lake 
City. Leaving there on their own responsibility, the fame of the Mexican 
silver-mines attracted them to Puebla, where they remained four months in 
company with a mixed crowd of miners, Indians, and Mexican peons. 
Having accumulated a considerable amount of silver, the spirit of adventure 
led them to Santa Fe, where, some of the party getting themselves into a dif- 
ficulty, a hasty flight northward became necessary. Procuring a Mexican 
boro (jackass), and loading him with a few crackers and their personal 
efiects, they set out for Fort Union, one hundred miles distant. Here they 
procured a mule and crossed over to Bent's Fort, where they joined the 
Kiowa Expedition under Major Sedgwick. Returning from this, they pro- 
ceeded to Camp Floyd, and thence across Kiowa Pass to Pike's Peak, where 
they "jumped" a claim and went to mining. Here they spent the summer, 
and in the fall hired to Joe Doyle, a Mexican trader and ranchero, 
to go down the Waifoma River and oversee his peons and take charge 
of his herds. Remaining all winter on his ranch, they went again next 
spring to Leavenworth, and hired as riders to the California Overland Ex- 
press Company, in which business they remained until the outbreak of the 
rebellion. 

"With the prospect of active sen-ice, they could not stand idly by and 
see others engaged, and accordingly recruited ten men, with whom they 
joined Captain William Cleaveland's independent company for the defence of 
the Kansas border. Their first exploit was a dash into De Kalb, Missouri, 
where they captured twelve or fourteen prisoners and forty horses and mules. 
A large party, however, pursued them, overtook and captured them at 
Atkinson's Ferry, carried them to St. Joseph, and lodged them in jail. The 
good people of St. Joseph were very anxious to have them tried and sent to 
the penitentiary at once; but there was no court in session, and the only 
recourse was to lock them up in the jail, where they did not remain long. 
The guard was made drunk with drugged whiskey, the negro cook was bribed 
with a twenty-dollar gold piece to steal the keys from the jailer, the door 
was unlocked at midnight, and the whole party walked out just ten days 
after they had been incarcerated. One John Seelover, a friend, had a skiff 
near at hand to cross them over the river, and a conveyance on the other side 
to take them to Atchison the same night. The next nigh+, nothing daunted 
by their recent jail-experience, the same party crossed in a flat-beat to 



MOORE AND BLUE, THE SCOUTS. 551 

Missouri, captured from the rebel farmers horses enough to mount them- 
selves, and returned again, after giving the people thereabouts a good scare. 
The evening following, a negro came to their head-quarters at Pardee, eight 
miles from Atchison, and said that his rebel master, John Wells bj name, 
and living twelve miles south of St. Joseph, was to leave the next morning 
for Price's army with two wagon-loads of goods and a cofBn full of arms. 
The company started over immediately, the negro acting as guide. The 
rebel was found, and so were the goods, consisting of bacon, flour, sugar, 
voffee, tobacco, whiskey, powder and lead, but no arms. Demand was made 
fur the latter, but the prisoner denied having any. A lariat was then thrown 
over his neck and drawn tight for a few minutes, when he disclosed their 
place of concealment, — a newly-made grave, with head and foot board, — in 
which were found twenty stand of ^rms of all kinds, and a box of pistols, all 
of which were taken to Fort Leavenworth and turned over to the United 
States Government. 

Many otlier expeditions were made, until Cleaveland and his band were 
known and feared all over that country. On one of these it was ascertained 
that Major Ilart, of Price's army, was at his home, fifteen miles from Weston, 
with ten men. The company immediately set forth to capture them, a 
woman — Mrs. Chandler — acting as guide. The major, his men, and the 
Btock on his farm, were taken and carried to Geary City, Kansas, where the 
stock was j ust put away and twelve men left as a guard over the prisoners, 
when forty Missourians rode up and demanded their surrender. Chandler, 
who stood in the porch, said they would never surrender, — when he was shot 
dead, eleven bullets being found in his body. His wife and the remainder 
fired from the house, and picked them off so fast that they were compelled to 
retire to Fort Leavenworth, eight miles distant, whence they brought up a 
company of the ] st Missouri Cavalry, under Captain Fuller, to their assist- 
ance, and finally succeeded in capturing the little garrison. They were 
taken to the fort, and, no one appearing against them, were speedily released 
by Major Prince, of the U. S. Regulars, commanding the post. Not long 
after this, IMoore, Blue, William Tuff of Baltimore, and Cleaveland, dashed 
into Kansas City and levied a contribution of some thirty-three hundred 
dollars in coin upon two secession bankers who had rebel flags Q.jing at their 
windows. They were pursued, but made their escape, divided the money 
equally, and all four went to Chicago to spend it, which they did most 
liberally, and in June, 1861, returned to Leavenworth. 

Here Moore and Blue, who had become fast friends, separated, the latter 
going into Missouri on several jayhawking expeditions, and the former acting 
as guide to General Sturgis and participating in the battles of Dug Spring 
and Wilson Creek. Moore relates many interesting adventures which befell 
bim while thus engaged, of which one is here given as an illustration of his 
shrewdness and. foresight. Having been sent by General Lyon to ascertain 
about certain guerrillas that were lurking about the country, he dressed him- 
selt in butternut uniform and set out. Thinking, however, that he might 
be captured on the trip, he deternained to avail himself of a trick ha 



552 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

had somewhere read of, which -was to take a large minie hall, cat the top 
off, liollow it out, and then take the other part and make of it a screw to fit 
on again, thus forming a kind of little box. He then took a piece of parch- 
ment paper, and, writing on it in a peculiar hand a commission in the 
secret service of the Confederate army, and signing to it the name of General 
Price, enclosed it in the bullet, screwed it up, and started on again. lie had 
gone but a little way when, sure enough, he fell into the hands of Sy 
Gordon's guerrilla band, who proposed hanging him at once. Gordon told him 
he had orders to hang all such suspicious characters as he was, and that he 
should do it. Moore replied that he had very little to say, but he wished he 
would do him the favor to take that bullet to General Price after he had 
hung him. Gordon seemed much amused at so trifling a request, and said 
to his prisoner that he must be either cr^zj or a fool. When informed that 
there was more about the bullet than he had any idea of, ho insisted tliat he 
should be shown what it was ; but Moore refused, saying that he was sworn 
to say nothing about it. Gordon was non-plussed for a while, but, examining 
the bullet very closely, soon saw the trick, unscrewed the top, and took out 
and read the contents. Turning to Moore, he told him he was " all right,'^ 
and furnished him with a better horse than he then had, on which he at once 
started back. On arriving at camp, he related his adventure, whereupon a 
body of cavalry was sent out in pursuit, and the next day succeeded in cap- 
turing a number of the band. 

Late in the fall Moore and Blue again met in Leavenworth, and both went 
towards Springfield as guides and spies for Lane and Sturgis's commands. On 
Christmas-day both were sent by General Steele into Price's camp, whither 
they went, and returned on January 3, 1SG2. Four miles from Warsaw they 
found Christmas was being celebrated by a ball, at which many rebel ofiicers 
were present. In company with some rebel teamsters, they devised a plan to 
scare these officers off, and secure to themselves the field and the girls, by 
rushing up to the house and shouting, at the top of their voices, " The Foils 
are coming ! the Feds are coming !" The plan worked admirably : the 
officers rushed away in hot haste, — one even falling into the well, — and our 
plotters were left in full possession of the premises. Coming back to Sedalia. 
they were engaged by Colonel Weir as guides. Going ahead one day to select 
a camping-ground, they came to a house where was a man very hospitably 
inclined, asking them to stop, put up their horses and feed them with corn, 
of which he had plenty, llepresenting that they had been pressed into the 
service, but were in heart with the rebels, their entertainer grew confidential, 
and told them something about himself, — that he acted as a spy, carried 
despatches wrapped in a cigar, &c. The information thus obtained from him 
contributed to the capture, by General Pope, at Blackwater, of thirteen hun- 
dred rebels with all their equipments. They accompanied General Pope on 
his expedition to Warrensburg, where he captured Colonel Parke's rebel 
force, and then returned to Kansas, where they jayhawked for a month 
or two. Going again to Missouri, they learned that Quantrill's guerrilla 
band was in the vicinity of Independence. With eleven comrades, they W04it 



MOORE AND BLUE, THE SCOUTS. 553 

there, captured the town, quartered themselves in the court-house, and badly 
frightened the people, who thought, of course, that they were only the 
advance-guard of a larger body behind. Quautrill soon came into the place 
with forty-five men, and demanded their surrender. This Avas refused, and 
a skirmish commenced, the occupants of the court-house firing out of the 
doors and windows, and finally succeeding in dispersing the besiegers, who 
went ofi" for reinforcements. The thirteen now thought it best to retire, 
which they did, skirmishing for one and a half miles to a stone fence, when 
the guerrillas mounted. The jayhawkers now ensconced themselves behind 
the fence. Holding their position until dusk, they then scattered, having 
killed five and wounded seven of the guerrillas. Pursuit was made by the 
latter ; but the darkness enabled them to escape, and they soon put an 
eff"ectual end to it by cutting the telegraph-wire and stretching it across the 
road from fence to fence. 

The twain now joined Generals Curtis and Sigel as couriers, and made 
several dangerous trips between the army and Rolla, carrying despatches 
each way, on one of which Blue was taken prisoner and held as such for six 
weeks. Both accompanied General Curtis in his terrible march through 
Arkansas to Helena, and met with many stirring adventures by the way. 
One day while they were riding in company with Newton Blue, a brother of 
Frank and also a scout, they came suddenly upon five rebels in a lane, with 
whom they stopped and talked for some time, representing themselves as 
Southern men. The rebels soon heard a bugle behind them, however, and, 
suspecting that all was not right, made a charge upon our scouts, vrho killed 
three of them and captured their horses, the remaining two falling into the 
hands of the Federal advance. At Helena they engaged in buying cotton 
for the speculators, and in one of their excursions were captured by the 
guerrillas. Pretending to be rebels, they joined a portion of Jeff Thompson's 
gang, and, remaining with them eleven days, obtained much information 
concerning him. Having had enough of guerrilla life, they planned an escape, 
in this wise. An old negro, of whom they knew, was just going into Helena 
with a load of cotton for sale. By him they sent word to General Steele of 
an arrangement which had been made to rob him on his return of the pro- 
ceeds of the cotton. The message was carried and delivered faithfully, and 
on his way back the negro was robbed, as proposed, of his eleven hundred 
dollars in greenbacks, which were found hidden away in his boots ; but just 
as the thirty-one guerrillas were dividing the spoils, the second battalion of 
the 1st Missouri Cavalry came up and captured the whole party, all of whom 
were subsequently sent to St. Louis as prisoners. 

From Helena Moore and Blue next went to Columbia, and then to Corinth, 
where they detected and arrested two counterfeiters, making a great haul of 
counterfeit St. Louis city treasury warrants and gold dollars, both of which 
were well executed. Accompanying Colonel Truesdail's police force to Louis- 
ville, they there played the rebel, and hunted out Palmer and Estes, who 
burned the ammunition-steamers at Columbus and were afterwards sent 
to (^amp Chase. With our army they came on to Nashville, and afterwards 



554 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

ran as mail-messengers, — a very dangerous service. Getting on the track of 
a baud of guerrillas between Bowling Green and Nashville, they piloted 
a cavalry force to the neighborhood, and captured a considerable number, 
who were brought to Nashville and were properly dealt with. They next 
made a successful spy-trip to Murfreesborough, going by way of Lavergne 
and crossing at Sanders's Ferry. Dr. Goodwin, of the rebel army, whom they 
had fallen in with on the way, vouched for them, and they passed the pickets 
into the town readily enough. Once in, they made the circuit of the town 
and camps, obtaining all the information they could, and then began to think 
of getting back. It was arranged that Moore should go to Chattanooga for 
further observation, while Blue would return to Nashville and report what 
they had already seen and heard. With this understanding, both went at 
once to the provost-marshal's office for passes. At that time Captain 
William Brenton was provost-marshal, whom they found somewhat cral)bed 
and chary of words. Making known their wants, they were saluted in tliis 
manner : — 

" Want a pass to Chattanooga, do you ? Lots of people in that fix. What 
d'ye want to go there for ?" 

" We want to join Jack Jones's cavalry company," replied Moore, at a 
venture, who had heard of such a company. 

" If that's all you want, you needn't go to Chattanooga for it. Jones and 
his company are here now." 

This was a new and not pleasing phase of affairs ; and, to add to their diffi- 
culty. Captain Brenton called Jones in at once, and told him here were two 
men who wished to join his company, and he'd better have them sworn 
in right away. Fairly caught in their own trap, there was no escape, and, 
trusting the future to good luck, they yielded to their fate, and were sworn in. 
Three days afterwards, they with three others were detailed to duty on the 
second picket-line, and determined to take advantage of this opportunity and 
make their escape. Some distance from their station was a house where 
whiskey could be obtained at exorbitant prices ; and Moore and Blue proposed 
to their companions that if they would go and get the whiskey they would 
pay for it, and guard the post during their absence. This was agreed to ; and 
the whiskey-seekei's were hardly out of sight when our two scouts rode off 
in hot haste to the outer pickets, two guards being on duty in the road, the 
remainder of the pickets being near by at their fire, and their horses tied 
close at hand. They were accosted by the guard with the usual — 

" Halt ! who comes there ?" 

" Friends, with the countersign !" was the answer. 

" Dismount; advance, one, and give the countersign," was now the order. 

Our scouts had foreseen this, and planned accordingly. Hence they rode 
up briskly to the pickets ; and while they pulled and tugged upon the bridle- 
reins to hold in their fiery steeds, the spurs upon their heels were doing 
equally good service in urging the animals forward, and they could not 
be stopped until abreast of the pickets and nearly touching their opposing 
muskets. Moore then leaned forward, without dismounting, as if to give *^^he 



MOORE AND BLUE, THE SCOUTS. 555 

password, and suddenly jerked to one side the bayonet and loaded gun of 
the nearest guard, while with his other hand he shot him dead with his 
pistol, suddenly drawn from his holster. The ball penetrated the forehead, 
the guard falling over backward, his mouth wide opened. Blue at the same 
time drew a pistol and shot the other guard dead in his tracks, and away 
they flew down the road, and were speedily lost in the darkness and distance. 
The rest of the rebel pickets did not pursue them, but our scouts could hear 
them shout after them long and loudly, "Oh, you infernal Yan- 
kees I" &c. &c. The scouts soon took to the woods, travelling all night 
in the direction of Nashville, and meeting with no further adventure until 
soon after sunrise, when one of them espied a moving object in their front, 
at a considerable distance. A second glance revealed it to be a " butternut," 
with gun in hand, who at that instant glided behind a tree and took delibe- 
rate aim at them. Our scouts, who were also in butternut, were not taken 
aback. Keeping on at an easy horse-walk, and apparently noticing no one, 
one of them begins to sing, in a brisk, cheery voice, a verse of the " Dixie" 
song, ending, — 

" In a Southern land I'll take my stand, 
And live and die in Dixie," &o. 

As they neared the butternut, he was observed to lower his gun and 
emerge from behind the tree. When abreast, he accosted the twain : — 
" Halloo, boys ! which way ?" 

"All right! — taking a little scout this morning," was the answer. 
The " butternut," who was a rebel scout or guerrilla, was now near them, 
unsuspecting, and inclined to be inquisitive and sociable, his gun over his 
shoulder. But our men were in haste, and had a vivid remembrance of that 
previous moment when he had drawn a bead on them, in such a cold-blooded 
manner, from behind the tree. One of them draws his revolver as quick as 
thought and shoots him dead ; and again they ride forward briskly for a while, 
and eventually reach the Federal lines near Nashville in safety, but through 
dangers to be feared upon every hand, from behind each tree, or rock, or 
bush, — as they were traversing debatable land, between two great contend- 
ing- armies, and known to be swarming with scouts, spies, and troops, and 
especially rebel guerrillas or " partisan rangers." 

Acting as secret policemen and detectives, they now assisted in develop- 
ino- several important cases, a full mention of which would fill many pages 
of this work. Occasionally they varied their daily routine by acting as 
guides to cavalry expeditions, in which they rendered eflScient service. One 
of their adventures in Nashville is worth relating. 

After the battle of Stone River large numbers of rebel prisoners were sent 
to the city and allowed their parole, whereupon the wealthy secessionists of 
the place seized every'opportunity to feed, clothe, and encourage them. One 
dav, as Moore and Blue were walking down High Street in the dress of Con- 
federate prisoners, they were invited into an elegant residence and were 
kindly entertained by Miss Hamilton, one of the reigning belles of Nashville. 
Conversation naturally ensued concerning the relative merits and demerits of 



556 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

the North and South, in tho course of which Miss Hamilton saiil slie had 
done every tiling in her power to aid the Southern cause. She had sent 
letters of encouragement, she said, and also a Southern flag, through the 
lines. She told them of an old Irishwoman who was in the habit of carrying 
out goods in a market-wagon which had a false bottom. She said, too, that 
Governor Andy Johnson once had her brought before him and gave her a 
severe lecturing, but she soon talked him over, and persuaded him into 
giving her a pass to go two miles out of the city to see her aunt, and that 
when once beyond the lines she went to the rebel army at Murfreesborough. 
She further said that a Mrs. Montgomery, who lived two miles out on the 
Franklin pike, had taken out more goods than anybody else in Nashville. 
"When she went to Murfreesborough she took out with her letters, and had 
given to Southern soldiers coming into Nashville large quantities of clothing, 
and finally demonstrated her good will by presenting Moore with a fine pair 
of pants and other clothing and a pair of new boots. In return for these 
acts of kindness, Colonel Truesdail sent her the following letter of thanks : — 

"Office Chikf Army Police, January 10, 1863. 
"Miss Hamilton, High Street: — 

" Dear Miss : — Please accept my grateful acknowledgment for your kindness — ■ 
during the arrival of a large number of Confederate prisoners in the city from the 
battle of Stone River, and their stay here — in calling into your beautiful residenee 
one of my secret police, and for the kind and benevolent treatment you extended to 
him. Also for the new suit of clothes and the cavalry boots given him, the valuable 
information of your labors in the Confederate cause furnished to him, and the know- 
ledge afforded me of your persevering energy as a spy and smuggler. I shall endeavor 
to profit by it, and may have occasion to send another ofiicer to you. 
"Respectfully, 

"William Truespail, 

" Chief Army Police." 

After this they accompanied a cavalry police expedition for the purpose 
of capturing Captains Young and Scruggs, — the leaders of a band of 
guerrillas on White's Creek, who were a terror to the whole country. They 
were at the house of an old man named McNeill, which was surrounded 
and a demand made for Young and Scruggs. There being some sixty 
troops to back the demand, the old man did not dare to deny their presence, 
and, without deigning any reply, turned at once, went into the house, and 
bolted the door. This slight bai-rier was speedily broken down, and the 
crowd rushed in. Search was made everywhere, — down stairs and up, under 
beds, in chimneys, and under the floor ; but neither Young nor Scruggs was 
found. As a last resort, they went to the girls' bedrooip ; and there — in bed, 
between two full-grown young women — the valiant Young was found snugly 
hidden away. He was unceremoniously dragged out, and Scruggs in the 
mean while having been found in a hay-loft, both were taken to Nashville, 
and are now in the penitentiary at that place, awaiting their trial. 

For the last five months Moore and Blue have been constantly engaged in 



TRAINOR, THE TRAITOR AVAGON-MASTER. 557 

the investigation and development of many minor cases; and both look 
forward to yet many days of adventure for themselves and of usefulness to 
the Government, 



Trainor, the Traitor "Wagon-Master. 

In the early part of February, 1863, there was boarding at the City 
Hotel, in Nashville, a lady of ordinary appearance and apparently about 
forty-five years of age. Her husband and three sons were in the rebel Mor- 
gan's command, and she was known by the proprietors of the house and by 
Mrs. "VYinburn — the wife of one of them — as entertaining strong sympathy 
for the Confederate cause. In reality, however, she was a Union woman, 
and in the employ of Colonel Truesdail, Chief of the Army Police. From 
the position of her relatives, and her former place of residence, aided by her 
expression of Southern sentiments, she was considered a genuine secession- 
ist, and had completely won the favor of Mrs. Winburn, by whom she was 
made a friend and confidante. Mrs. W. told her on several occasions how 
much aid she and others of her lady friends had rendered to the Confederates, 
and how much more they intended to do for them. When visitors arrived 
at the City Hotel and made known their Southern sympathies, she was in- 
troduced to them as entertaining the same sentiments, and at once admitted 
to their confidence and councils. In this way she learned the existence 
there of a club, or rather association of persons, of rebel tendencies, the 
members of which made use of a certain password, without which none 
could gain admittance to their meetings, and this password was "Truth and 
Fidelity." 

About the middle of February there arrived at the hotel from Louisville a 
certain Mrs. Trainbr, who was there joined by her husband, John Trainor, 
— the latter understood to have formerly been master of transportation in the 
Ordnance Department of Major-General Buell's army. Mrs. Trainor was 
introduced by Mrs. "Winburn to her confidential friend our detective as 
one who had at heart the welfare of the Southern Confederacy, and Mrs. 
Trainor presented her to Trainor, her husband, saying that he too was a 
friend of the South and ardently desired its success in the struggle for in- 
dependence. This interview proved the precursor of many others, in which 
Trainor and his wife made many interesting statements concerning them- 
selves and the assistance which they had rendered to the rebel army. 

From Trainor she thus gained the following remarkable information. In 
the fall of 1861, he said, he had run the Federal blockade and brought from 
Louisville to Nashville, for the use of the Confederate army, several wagon- 
loads of arms, ammunition, drugs, and medicines. These he had purchased 
in Louisville, — the arms and ammunition from a Mr. Bull, and the drugs and 
medicines from Dr. Pile. While in N'ashville on this business, he made the 
acquaintance of General ZoUicofier, who advised him to abandon the 



558 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

neutral position he then occupied in regard to the yvav and engage in the 
service of the Confederates. This he agreed to do ; and, the Letter to accom- 
plish his ends, he was to obtain the position of Master of Transportation in 
the Ordnance Department of the Federal army. On his return to Louisville 
he had applied for the situation, t\'hich was given to him. Since then he 
had improved the advantages it offered, by following the Federal army down 
into Alabama with wagon-loads of contraband goods, which, according to 
previous arrangement, he disposed of at different places. During the whole 
Buell campaign the rebels knew, at all times, the strength of the escort which 
accompanied him, and if they did not capture his train it was not his fault. 
In the different skirmishes between the two armies he so managed that his 
train was never in its right place, and frequently the rebels would capture a 
portion of it, but would not take him prisoner, as it would be against their 
own interests to do so. 

He regretted very much that the Confederates had not captured a train 
of one hundred and sixteen wagons, once under his charge, while General 
Buell was on his march to Kentucky in September last. He had requested 
Mrs. Winburn to inform Generals Morgan and Forrest where they could 
find the train and how many men the escort numbered. This she did ; and 
he was so sure they would capture the train that he took Mrs. "Winburn and 
his wife along for some distance from Nashville to see the fun of the capture. 
He had with him a young man — formerly in the Confederate army, but at 
that time in his employ — wlio was so disappointed because the train was not 
captured that he blew up and destroyed twenty-five of the wagons as they 
were passing over a certain bridge, and this, he said, was done with his own 
knowledge and consent, and partially at his suggestion. 

After General Rosecrans assumed command of the Army of the Cumber- 
land, Trainor said he began to purchase from Federal officers and soldiers, 
and from others who would sell them, pistols for General Wheeler, Dick 
McCann, and the guerrilla bands in the country. Some of them he carried 
to the rebels himself, and the balance he sent by a man named Nevins, who 
lived in Kentucky and had a contract to furnish cattle to the Federal army. 
This Nevins usually had with him some of Morgan's men, through whom 
he kept the Confederates continually informed of the number and move- 
ments of Federal troops along the line of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- 
road, and he had acted as guide for Kirby Smith when the latter invaded 
Kentucky last fall. Trainor further said that he (Trainor) now had charge of 
the army transportation at Nashville, and that about the time of the battles 
at Stone River he was in the rebel camp and gave information. At this 
the lady remarked, — 

"That accounts for the success of the Confederates in capturing so many 
of the Federal wagons." 

" You may come to what conclusion on that subject you please," answered 
Trainor, 

The young man, he continued, who was with him at the time of Buell's 
retreat and blew up the twenty-five wagons, was still in his employ ; and one 



TRAINOB; THE TRAITOR WAGON-MASTER. 659 

night not long since, by his management, five hundred mules belonging to 
the United States had stampeded and mysteriously disappeared from their 
corral. Many other interesting things which the young man had done for 
the benefit of the Confederate Government Trainor related with relish, and 
seemed desirous to impress upon the mind of his hearer that he himself was 
at all times anxious to serve the rebels and injure the Federal Government 
in every possible way. Seeing this disposition on his part, she suggested 
that he could now do more good by purchasing arms, quinine and other 
medicines for the use of the Confederate army than in any other way, and 
adding that she had a friend in Louisville who was a secret agent for that 
very purpose, and who would assist him in getting them South. 

Trainor replied that he had then on hand one and a half pounds of 
quinine and two or three splendid pistols, which he would like to send 
South, and that he could procure any quantity of pistols if the money was 
furnished to purchase them. 

The lady then proposed to buy his pistols and quinine, if lie would deliver 
them to her friend in Louisville, wlio would send them through the lines. 

Trainor assented, and sold her the quinine and four pistols, for which he 
received from her two hundred dollars. He also proposed to, and did, write 
to Mr. Bull and Dr. Pile, of Louisville, requesting them to furnish the secret 
agent above mentioned such quantity of quinine, pistols, and knives as he 
might wish, for the Confederate service. He further said that he had a friend 
by the name of Kellogg, in whom he had confidence, and for whom he had 
obtained a pass and transportation to Louisville, and that he would send the 
quinine and pistols by him, instead of by his wife, as had been previously 
arranged. Implicit faith could be reposed in Kellogg, as he had recently 
engaged in running horses to the Confederacy, and was now trying to assist 
a rebel prisoner to escape from the penitentiary. His friend Mr. Bull, 
continued Trainor, had a brother who was chief clerk in the Quartermaster's 
Department of the Union army, and as good a secessionist as his brother, 
and who had a much better chance to serve the South than he had. He 
thought the Federals would have a good time whipping the Confederates, 
when many of the important offices of the different army departments were 
filled by friends of the latter. 

The reason assigned for sending the quinine and pistols to the South by 
the way of Louisville was that it afforded less chance of detection than to 
send directly from Nashville, as the Federal army had a vigilant police, and 
it was almost impossible to get them through the lines in that direction. 
Accordingly, as agreed, Trainor, about the middle of March, did send to 
Louisville, by his friend Kellogg, the quinine and pistols that had been 
purchased of him, and which, on their arrival, were delivered to the supposed 
secret agent of the Confederacy, as will hereafter be related. 

About the same time there arrived at the City Hotel a gentleman repre- 
senting himself as Dr. Dubois, an agent of the Confederate States Army, and 
just from Bragg's command. As he had with him. a genuine pass, signed 
by General Bragg and countersigned by General Breckinridge, his state- 



560 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

ment was readily accepted as true by the proprietors of the hotel and its 
habitues. For nearly a week after his arrival he was confined to his room by 
a severe sickness, during which he was carefully nursed by Mrs. Wiuburn. 
As soon as recovered, he was introduced by Mrs. W. to Trainor, as a friend 
of hers who had just come to Nashville from Bragg's army to purchase 
medicines and goods to be sent South through the Federal lines. Dubois at 
once expressed his desire of purchasing pistols and medicines, and requested 
Trainor to assist him. 

Trainor eagerly assented, and said, " I will furnish you nine." 

"But I want and must have more." 

"Well, I will get them for you, and will leave them at Mrs. Davidson's, 
six miles out on the Charlotte pike. Some of my army-wagons are going 
out that way after wood, and I can easily carry them with me." 

Mrs. Winburn had previously sold Dubois three pistols, for which she had 
been promised twenty-five dollars each, two of which Trainor took with him 
to his camp to add to those he had there, and to take them all out together 
as soon as possible. Dubois said that he would conceal in the muzzle of the 
third pistol important information, written in cipher, and a letter to General 
Cheatham, telling him that a lot of pistols -had been procured through the 
influence of Captain Trainor, and were now on their way South, to which 
was added a request that he would set Trainor right with the Confederates 
when they got possession of Nashville. This pistol Trainor called for and 
carried away the next evening, but on the day following returned and said 
that he was totally unable to carry them out to Mrs. Davidson's, as he had 
expected to. Dubois then told him he had a friend who would take them 
out, and he might bring them back to the hotel, — which he agreed to do the 
next evening. 

He came as he had promised, bringing with him eight revolvers on his 
person, some of them in his waist-belt and some in his boot-legs. As he 
handed them over, and while Dlibois was putting them under the blanket 
on the bed, he remarked that he had on several occasions taken out on his 
person as many pistols as he had just brought in. Mrs. Winburn, who waa 
present, boasted that she had taken out four blankets on her person, and that 
a lady friend had carried out beneath her skirts, in the same way, a cavalry 
saddle. While this conversation was still progressing, all parties, including 
Mrs. Winburn, Trainor, and Dubois, were arrested, the latter being ironed 
and sent out, — ostensibly to prison, but more probably to some other field of 
operations, where his skill in detecting rebel smugglers and spies might be 
made equally useful. 

Mrs, Trainor had already returned to Louisville, and had been there some 
days. The medicines which had been forwarded by Kellogg were in her 
possession, and she was anxiously awaiting a visit from the secret agent of 
the Confederacy, to whom she could deliver them and make with him 
arrangements for the purchase of more. She had been telegraphed by her 
Nashville friends that he would call on her in a few days ; and, as some- time 
had elapsed since the receipt of the despatch, she began to wonder why Uo 



TRAINOR, THE TRAITOR WAGON-MASTER. 561 

did not come. One day, as she was returning in a carriage to her house, in 
what is known as California Suburb, on Fifteenth Street beyond Kentucky 
Street, she espied coming from it a well-dressed, handsome-appearing young 
man, who wore conspicuously a large red-white-and-red cravat. As he came 
opposite to the carriage, he hailed the driver, and asked, — 

*' How far are you going V 

" Just to yonder house," replied the coachman, — pointing to Mrs. Train- 
or's, the house he had just come from. 

" Very well : I will wait here for you, then, and go back with you." 

During the time occupied in this colloquy, and as long as she could see 
him from the carriage-window, Mrs. Trainor eyed him earnestly, as though 
she suspected he was the person she was so anxious to see. Nothing was 
said, however, and on reaching home she went in and found on the table a 
note for her from one H. C. Davis, stating that he was the secret agent of 
tlie Confederacy, that he had just called to see about the medicines, and was 
sorry to find her out. The signature to the note was "Truth and Fidelity," 
— a sure guarantee that there was no deception in the matter. Meanwhile 
the coach had returned to where the prospective passenger was left standing. 
when that gentleman took his seat inside and directed the di'iver to turn 
around and go again to the house he had just left. Mrs. Trainor met Davis 
at the door and welcomed him most cordially. Holding out her hand, she 
said, — 

" I thought as much. I was sure it was you when I first put my eye on 
you." 

"Why, madam, what could have made you think so?" 

" Oh, tliat cravat ! Nobody else would wear it. But you must be careful 
about it. It isn't safe. You'll be suspected." 

"Oh, I guess there's no danger. I have friends enough in Louisville to 
take care of me." 

The two then entered the house and engaged in earnest conversation. 
Davis said that he was just about shipping some goods to the South, and he 
would like to send what medicine she could furnish along with them. He 
made it a practice to make as few shipments as possible, in order to avoid 
suspicion. 

It was all ready, she said, and he might have it as soon as he wished. 

Davis made arrangements to have them delivered at an appointed time, 
and proposed the purchase of a large quantity in addition to that she had 
brought from Nashville. She entered eagerly into the business, and said 
she would ascertain at what prices she could obtain quinine, morphine, and 
pulverized opium. The next day she reported that she could get them from 
a man named Tafel, who kept a small prescription-store, — the quinine for 
six dollars an ounce, the morphine at eight dollars an ounce, and the pul- 
verized opium at fourteen dollars a pound. Davis thought this rather high, 
but said he would take them at that price. He wanted a thousand ounces 
t f quinine and smaller quantities of the others. After making arrange- 
ments for the purchase of the medicines and a supply of pistols, — which was 

36 



562 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

to be furnished by Mr. Bull at thirty dollars each, — Davis Avent to the city to 
prepare for their shipment South. 

The next evening he called again to invite Mrs. Trainer to the theatre, 
and Tvas told that there was a diflSculty about the medicines. Tafel was 
fearful that he could not make so large a purchase on his individual credit, 
and that he wished the money advanced to buy them with. Davis replied 
that he never did business in that way. He would pay cash on delivery, 
and if Tafel could not furnish them on those terms they must look elsewhere, 
Mrs. Trainor thought there would be no difficulty about it. Tafel was to 
procure them of a wholesale druggist named AVilder, and the matter could 
doubtless be arranged to the satisfaction of all concerned. In fact, she 
could safely promise that it should be ready by the next afternoon. At his 
next visit, Davis was told that the medicines had been purchased, and were 
ready for delivery, when and where he pleased. 

He wished them delivered at her house, he said, early the next morning. 
He was all ready to ship, and was only waiting for them. Mrs. Trainor 
engaged that they should be there without fail, and Davis returned to the 
city, having first arranged with a Federal soldier whom he found at her 
house — a deserter from the Anderson Cavalry — to go South and act as a 
scout for General Breckinridge in his expected movement into Kentucky, 
The next morning, instead of himself coming to receive the goods as he had 
promised, he sent out a force of policemen, who reached there just as the 
wagon containing the medicines drove up to the door, Mrs. Trainor, the 
driver, and the deserter were taken into custody, and the former was sent 
immediately to Nashville. The wagon was found to contain drugs — mostly 
quinine and opium — to the value of about five thousand five hundred dollars 
according to the wholesaler's bill, and eight thousand eight hundred dollars 
at Tafel's prices. The pistols did not come. Bull having failed to procure 
them. Wilder and Bull were also arrested, and the store of the former 
seized, with its contents, valued at from fifty thousand to seventy-five 
thousand dollars, Tafel's prescription-shop was converted by General 
Boyle into a medical dispensary for the hospitals of Louisville, and is now 
used as such. Since her arrest, Mrs. Trainor has been heard to say that she 
was fearful that secret agent of the Confederacy was only "one of Trues- 
dail's spies," in which supposition she was more than usually correct, he 
being no other than our old friend Newcomer, who played so important a 
part in many of the cases here and elsewhere recorded. 

The following statement of the army policeman who was sent from Nash- 
ville to Louisville to arrest Mrs. Trainor and her cotemporaries and abettors 
in crime sheds additional light upon this remarkable and important case: — 

"As per instructions of Chief of Army Police, at Nashville, I proceeded 
to the house of Mr. John Trainor, in Louisville, Kentucky, where I arrested 
Mrs. Trainor, Mr. Tafel, a deserter, and one other gentleman. They were 
put under arrest and placed in the guard-house. Mrs. Trainor was put 
under guard at her own residence. Next morning they — Mrs. T, and the 
three gentlemen — were brought to Nashville, under guard. Tlie house at 



TRAINOR, THE TRAITOR WAGON-MASTER. 563 

Louisville was searched, where was found a military saddle, which was 
taken ; also Ijetween eight thousand and nine thousand dollars' worth of 
quinine and opium was taken, — as per bill found with them, — which said 
articles were ready to be sent to ' Dixie/ During that night I had various 
conversations with Mrs. Trainor, in all of which she stated her object to 
be to make money, for which she undertook the risk. On my return on 
the train from Louisville to Nashville I brought eight persons as witnesses 
in the Trainor case and connected with Wilder, the smuggling firm. At 
various previous interviews had with Mrs. Trainor, she declared that her 
husband was not implicated in the smuggling, &c. with herself. But she 
afterwards confessed he was, — stating she had bought quinine, arms, 
equipments, &c., and shipped to him at Nashville, to be sent through the 
lines. After having made her final statements, — during which time she was 
kept in confinement some two or three weeks under guard, with strict 
orders allowing no person to converse with her, — she was notified that 
she could see her husband. Upon being admitted to the room, she embraced 
him, and then fainted, and was in that condition for several minutes. She 
was accompanied by her two small children, — a girl and a boy, aged five and 
seven years. The manacles were taken ofi" from Trainor prior to Mrs. T. 
and the children's entrance. The proper restoratives were administered to 
her by myself, — the husband being greatly alarmed, saying, ' Do you 
think she will recover?' 'Is it not a very long time to remain in this con 
dition?' 'I am afraid she will die,' &c. AVhen the restorative took efifect, 
his countenance lighted up with joy. After she was fully restored, a 
friend who was present, and myself, retired and left them to each other's 
society. They were together during the whole day, and at night were 
separated, — he being sent to jail and Mrs. T. to her quarters, there to await 
the final decision of Major-General Rosecrans." 

The evidence against Trainor as a smuggler is conclusive. As regards 
his confessions to the female detective at the City Hotel, Nashville, of the 
crime of treason while in the employ of the United States Government 
under General Buell last year, no further proof has been as yet discovered. 
When arrested, the bearing of Trainor was defiant to the last degree : he 
laughed scornfully at the officers and men who stood near or around him, 
and retained the same bold manner during his several days' imprisonment at 
the police office. 

At the time of this writing (May, 1863) the decision in the case of Trainor 
has not been made public, if arrived at. He may have concocted all that 
story of his betrayals under Buell to tickle the ears of silly people ; but 
probably not. The Chief of Police was shocked at the revelation, and 
desired cumulative evidence of its truth beyond the confidential confession 
of the wretched party to his detective. So far as possible, this was obtained, 
and "Dr. Dubois" was put upon the track, resulting in confirming the state- 
ment of the first detective in every respect, so far as it extended. 

In this connection comes up the case of Wilder, the wholesale and retail 
drug-dealer of Louisville. His immense concern has been closed, and hia 



564 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

goods \vill probably be confiscated. His greed and his rebel sympathies 
have proved his ruin. As one item against him, it is certainly true that he 
had coats manufactured and on hand stuffed and quilted with quinine, 
■which he sold to spies and travellers and traders to be taken South. The 
property thus confiscated in this case alone will defray the expenses of the 
Army Police for several months. 



A Spy on Morgan and Wife and his Nastville Xin, 

One of the most interesting cases of spying that has occurred in our army, 
though perhaps not so important as some others, was that in which a shrewd 
young Union soldier, whom we will name Johnson, was the actor, and by 
whom the notable General John H. Morgan and family were completely 
duped, as the following pages will reveal. 

"Nashville, February 8, 1863. 

"statement of a. B.JOHNSON IN RELATION TO GENERAL MORGAN, ETC. 

" I am a personal acquaintance of General John H. Morgan ; he is 

acquainted with my family in , Kentucky. I saw him at Lexington. 

I met him with about one hundred men about three miles from Stewart'a 
Ferry, on the "Wilson pike, on Tuesday, one week ago. He was pleased to see 
me, and, after due conversation, I agreed to scout for him. I came down with 
him to Stewart's Ferry, where he captured five Federal soldiers in the follow- 
ing manner. General Morgan and his men had on United States uniforms ; 
on reaching the ferry-boat, he saw the Federals on the opposite side of the 
river. He was hailed by the Federals, Captain Powell saying, ' What com- 
mand are you V He answered, ' 9th Kentucky.' Then Morgan asked 
him, 'What command are you?' They answered, 'Scouts from Nashville.' 
When Morgan asked him, 'What news?' 'Nothing of importance.' Then 
Morgan ordered eleven men aboard the ferry-boat, and sent them across and 
captured five men, and shot one who tried to escape. We left, and went to 
near Lebanon that night, next day to Liberty, and the next day (Thursday) 
to McMinnville, where I stayed four days, when I came to Liberty on 
Tuesday, where I was arrested by some of Morgan's men, and taken to 
Woodbury, where I was released by Colonel Cluke, and then went to Eeady- 
ville. From there I went to General Crittenden's head-quarters, and thence 
to General Rosecrans's head-quarters ; and there I was ordered to report to 
Colonel Truesdail, at Nashville. 

" My instruction from General Morgan was to go to Nashville, deliver 
letters to his (Morgan's) friends in Nashville, and then to learn whether 
there were any commissary stores at the Chattanooga & Nashville depot ; 
to see Mrs. Hagy if she knows of such commissary stores, and also ascer 
tain where the commissary stores in Nashville are, particularly, and how all 
the steamers lie in the river, how many gun-boats, and how they lie in tho 



A SPY ON GENERAL MORGAN AND WIFE. 565 

river. For this information, promptly delivered, he vrould give me five 
hundred dollars in greenbacks. He very pointedly charged me to beware of 
Truesdail's detective police, &c. I saw Mrs. Hagy to-night, after advising 
with Mrs. Cheatham, who advised me to put on United States uniform, 
which I got of Colonel Truesdail, and went and saw Mrs. Ilagy and others, 
and to visit all parts of the city to obtain the information the general 
directed. A shoemaker — first house on the left-hand side of Church Street 
after you leave the penitentiary — is making boots for me with false bottoms 
for carrying despatches. I have not his name: it begins with ' 11.' 

(Signed) "A. B. Johnson." 



"note from chief of police to general rosecrans. 

" General : — I have sent Johnson back with information not very in- 
viting to General Morgan : yet I am of the opinion the latter will make a 
raid upon some point in your command within ten days. He has a chain of 
scouts this morning extending from Stone River, perhaps into the city, all 
the way through to Lebanon, Greenville, Smithville, and McMinnville, 
his general head-quarters. One hundred of his men were at Stone River 
last night, I am informed. 

"Yours, &c., "William Truesdail, 

" Chief of Army Police." 

The spy Johnson was sent back to Morgan with proper instructions, made 
his trip successfully, returned, and reported as follows : — 

"I left Nashville February 9th, and stayed at Stewart's Ferry that night; 
next morning went four miles beyond Beard's Mill ; next day went five 
miles beyond Liberty. On the 12th went to McMinnville to General 
Morgan's head-quarters. When I went into his office, the general was not 
there, but his brother — Charlton Morgan — was in. He said to me, 'Is it pos- 
sible that you have got through ?' He then called one of the boys, and sent 
word to the general that a man wanted to see him on important business. 

The general came over, and, as he came in, said to me, 'Mr. , I am 

very glad to see you.' He then turned to his brother, and said, ' I told you he 
would go through, Charlton. I am hardly ever deceived in a man.' I told 
him that I had some things for his wife from Mrs. Dr. Cheatham. He then 
invited me over to Dr. Armstrong's, where he was boarding. We went in, 
and he introduced me to his lady, saying, ' Here, my dear, is the gentleman 
I told you of; he is just from Nashville.' She invited me to be seated ; and the 
general then asked me for information about'Nashville. I told him that they 
were receiving heavy reinforcements there,— that there were fifty-seven trans- 
ports lying at the lev6e, loaded with troops and provisions. He asked me if 
ihey had not been burned yet. I told him they had not. He says, ' Well, 
they will be.' He asked when I would be ready to go to Nashville again ; 
G 



566 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

and I tdiu him I was ready at any time. He asked me if I did not want 
some money ; I told him I did ; and he gave me one hundred dollars, — part in 
Confederate and part in greenbacks and Tennessee money. He then said 
he wanted me to leave on Sunday or Monday for Nashville. On Monday I 
started from McMinnville. He told me to find out how many troops there 
were here, where they were going to, and how many transports there were 
here, and their location. Also how many gun-boats there were here, and 
whether they lay above or below the railroad-bridge. He said for me to 
get all the information I could of the movements, location, and number of 
the army. Monday night I stayed at Mr. Bradford's, five miles the other 
side of Liberty ; next night stayed at Widow Buchan's, five miles beyond 
Lebanon ; next, stayed two miles this side of Green Hill ; next day (Thurs- 
day) came to Nashville. While I was in the general's office at McMinnville, 
Colonel Clarke, commanding Duke's brigade, came in and asked the general 
if the troops could not be paid ofi" before going to Kentucky. Morgan said 
they could be paid. He asked the colonel if he wanted any money. The 
colonel said, ' Yes ;' that he wanted commutation for fifty days. In marching 
they do not issue rations. Heard Major Steel say that the command would 
be at Sparta in the morning. Learned from officers at McMinnville that there 
were near twenty-five thousand troops at TuUahoma, that they -were fortify- 
ing there and at Manchester and Shelbyville, and that Breckinridge was at 
Manchester. While at McMinnville I saw the telegraph-operator, who in- 
vited me to his office. He was just sending to Bragg the news I had brought. 
While in his office, he received a despatch from either Richmond or Charles- 
ton, saying that France had interfered, and that commissioners were to meet 
in Central Mexico. 

(Signed) "A. B. Johnson." 

When Johnson started on this trip, he carried a letter from Mrs. Dr. 
Cheatham, of Nashville, to her sister, — Mrs. General Morgan, — Mrs. Cheat- 
ham supposing our man to be one of them and all right. He brought back 
an answer, which we copy, as follows : — 

" MRS. JOHN MORGAN TO MRS. DR. CHEATHAM. 

"My dearest Sis: — I was made very happy last Thursday by the recep- 
tion of your sweet letter, and felt almost as if you were Avith me : each little 
article had been purchased by yourself, and put up by your own hands. 
My best of husbands came hurrying over from his office with the detective, 
knowing how happy he could make me. We read the letters and feasted over 
them ; and as I untied each bundle he sat and watched my delight with eyes 
full of pleasure. Oh, I do wish you knew him well ! you could but love him ; 
and I often tell him the same thing of you. It will be a happy day when 
we can return home again and not see all the dear ones left there com- 
pelled to submit to the despotism of Yankee rule. My life is all a joyous 
dream now, from which I fear to awaken ; and awake I must, when my 
husband is called to leave me again. But he says that shall not be soon ; he 



A SPY ON GENERAL MORGAN AND WIFE. 567 

keeps his command constantly at work, but will not take more rest him 
self. Did you know he was within five miles of you a week or two ago t 
You would have had a visit from him in your own home, but fur one little 
circumstance, — of which I will tell you when I do many other things which 
in these uncertain times cannot be written. Allie is not now with us. 
Horace took her to Knoxville, where she had been intending to go fur some 
time previous. My husband is with the army : and with this portion of 
the army we may have to move at any moment. My husband says he wants 
me to remain with him, and of course I much prefer it. They say we are 
a love-sick couple : at any rate, I know my liege lord is devoted to me, and 
each day I am forced to love him more. His disposition is perfect. I know 
you will say, sis, that every topic I commence runs into praise of my hus- 
band ; but the truth is, I cannot help it, and one of these days you will not be 
surprised at it. I never knew whether you received my letters written from 
home or not. I sent you several ; and in one my husband added a post- 
script and directed it. If you have ever received it, you could not have mis- 
taken the handwriting on the little sUj) oj" paper. The man who took it was 
very much amused at you, and told us every thing you said ; he also saw 
mamma and papa, but did not make himself known. I wish very much I 
had the things you sent to mamma for me : I really need them : for a bride, 
my wardrobe is very scant. You could not have sent me any thing, sis, 
more acceptable than the things you did send ; and I am sure I can say the 
same for Allie. I miss her very much : she is not married yet, although it 
has been published recently in the Mobile papers. I will send her one of 
the skirts, perhaps, and other things you sent, immediately. The general is 
delighted with his fur collar ; he says you are a great sis. He has really been 
in love with you since the first time he saw you. He has searched his trunk 
through to find some trophy for darling little Mattie S. He is at it now, but 
I think he cannot find any thing : I sent his trunk of trophies to Knoxville 
for safe-keeping. He sends a great deal of love to you, and says, ' Tell sis to 
kiss her sweet children for me a thousand times.' I can correspond with 
you almost regularfy now, sis ; and it is such a comfort to me to be able to 
hear from you all. I will send letters to you for mamma, and get you to 
send them to her. There is another charm of my darling husband : he leaves 
nothing undone to contribute to my happiness, and he knows nothing will 
please me more than to hear from you. The bearer of this goes principally 
on my account. We are very comfortable here : my new brothers have all been 
with me, and I love them very much ; Mrs. D. is coming this week. Write 
me somethmg, please, of Uncle Sam's family ; he writes to me about twice a 
week, and I should like to give him some news of his family in my next 
letter. Give a great deal of love and a kiss to brother Will fur me, and to 
aunt and cousin Myra. Sis, do you realize that I am married ? What 
<vould I not give to see you, and for you to know my dear husband and see 
our happiness ! I have been writing most of the time, sis, with the room 
full of men talking to the general on all sorts of business, and I have all the 
time had one ear open : so I think you will have a crazy letter to read. 



568 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

What about the gowns, sis, I wrote for ? This man can bring out any thing, 
sis, you desirf; to send ; and I should be so much obliged to 3'ou if you will send 
me two pair of slippers, Nos. 4 and 4 J, and some pins, large and small. I could 
write all evening, but the man must start to-night. I will write soon again- 
If you cannot get the green dress the general sent for, get a lilac one : I 
prefer it, at any rate. I knew nothing of his sending before : he did it as a 
surprise for me. I have a gay riding-habit, sis, and can get nothing to trim 
it with. It is cloth, very handsome, and I should like blue velvet to trim it 
with. The man is sitting waiting, and asks me to tell you he is not a ' de- 
tective.' He is as true as steel, and would do any thing for the general. I 
must close now. I have some things I would like for you and brother Will 
to have, but I am afraid to send them. Please write me a good, long letter ; 
we enjoy them so much. Perhaps Cousin Myra would write too : I wish she 
would. Kiss the darlings for me a thousand times, and their uncle. You and 
dear brother Will must kiss each other for me. How I wish I could see you ! 
Good-bye. God bless you ! 

" Your devoted sister. 



" P.S. — Allie is not married, and does not expect to be, that I know of. In 
Dixie paper, as every thing else, is getting scarce." 



(postscript, by general morgan, to nis wife's letter.) 

"My dear Sister: — You cannot imagine how very anxious I am to see 
you again. Have you forgotten our first meeting? Had hoped to have seen 
you some days since, but accident alone prevented. The bearer can explain 
the cause of my failure. Mattie talks of you all the time, and is so anxious 
TO see you. Kiss your sweet little girl for her new uncle, and tell her I love 
her a good deal. Regards to the servants. It would be folly for me to tell 
you how very happy I am, knowing Mattie as you do. 

" Your aifectionate brother, , 



(postscript no. 2.) 

"I came very near forgetting, sis, a very important thing which I want to 
tell you of. It is this : I have made me an elegant evening dress, cut it out by a 
low waist that I happened to have with me, and it fits me so nicely, and is so 
stylish, that the general is so proud of it he will not consent to let my letter 
go without this postscript. He brought the dress from Kentucky for me. 
Is his own taste. It is a l^eautiful rose deschauni color. I wore it to the 
ball given in honor of us last Friday night, with a black lace flounce round 
the bottom, headed with black and pink velvet, a black lace vest and sleeves, 
and a fall of black lace around the waist. It was magnificent, and Very 
much admired. The ball was an elegant affair, — beautiful decorations and 
delicious supper, two magnificent bands of music from Tullahoma, and 
scores of gay, handsome officers. I wished for some of the pretty girls of 



A SPY ON GENERAL MORGAN AND WIFE. 569 

Nashville to enjoy it with us. I had a splendid time, and, of course, was 
something of a belle, — as the ball was in honor of the bandit and his bride. 

I think now I can rival Mrs. McK in evening dresses, but would prefer 

not being under the necessity. Alice has made her a handsome riding- 
habit. The Confederacy teaches us industry, does it not? I think the 
general would try to preserve the wonderful dress in alcohol, if he thought 
the color could be retained. I have the dress you sent to me : it is made 
becomingly and handsomely. I don't care to undertake another : my repu- 
tation is esiablished on one. You will see your friend, who carries this, often ; 
and I wonder if you will enjoy it as much as I will. I ride every evening 
on horseback with the general, and enjoy it so much. I have written quite 
a postscript. Brother Will, don't laugh at it. I have so much to say I 
cannot bear to close. Will, I will see you some day, I hope ; and then what 
a time we will have talking ! This is full of love. Good-bye again. 
"Your devoted sister, 



"P.S. — Please send me some large hooks and eyes, and a corset, — if pos- 
sible. No. 21. Sis, please send me some black stick pomatum : I want it 
for my husband." 



This letter, after being duly read, discussed, and copied in the ofiBce of the 
Chief of Police, at Nashville, was delivered by the "brave fellow" in person, 
at the house of Cheatham, in the small hours of the night. That he was 
hugely welcomed who will doubt ? The parlor tete-d-tete, the wine, &c., ia 
imaginable. He promises them to return to General Morgan in a day or two. 
They agree to have letters ready, some little articles for Mrs. General Morgan, 
&c. ; also they will apprize their friends, who will send many letters by him. 
At the appointed time "our man" gets at their house a large packet of 
letters, and the following articles for Mrs. Morgan, It will be seen, by the 
way, that the articles are all base "notions" of "Yankee" make:— 

100 Envelopes (white and nice). 

G quires Letter and Note Paper. 

Half-dozen Black Stick Pomatum. 

1 gross Hooks and Eyes. 

2 packs Pins. 

2 pairs Slippers. 

1 copy Godey's Lady's Book for March, 1863. 

The letters were mainly harmless epistles of family matters and gossip. 
The following letter and postscript, from Mrs. Cheatham to Mrs, General 
Morgan, will repay a leisurely reader's perusal: — 

(To Mrs. General Morgan.) 

" Nashville, Feb. 20, 1863. 
" Mr DARLING Mattie :— At half-past two last night the door-bell rang, and 



570 ARMY POLICE RECORD, 

whc should it be but 'our man'? lie looked so bright, and with a triumph- 
ant air handed me a letter from Mrs. M. ' You know that handwriting, 
madam V ' Oh, yes !' said I. ' Sit here on the sofa by me, and tell mo 
every thing.' I looked at the letter and talked to him at the same time. 
Bless your dear heart ! I can see your bright, happy face before me now, 
but I can't write. I shall never get over not seeing you a bride ; and when 
I attempt to write, it is so unsatisfactory I am inclined to throw my pen 
aside and cry, instead of writing, I have so much time for reflection, dear 
Mattie ; and sometimes I am very sad, but would not for worlds cast a 
shadow upon your bright horizon. You are very happy, and ought to be, 
for you have every thing to make you so. Don't you remember, though, I 
fell in love with your dear, good husband first? You didn't see him on the 
turnp'ke, with the blouse and coon-skin cap on. That day I was so excited 
about t'd Mrs. Flowers and her flag. He looked so amused. The fiery 
ordeal I nave passed through since that day ! All my spirit is gone. I am 
as submissive as a whipped child (except sometimes). Oh, if this man 
should be caught, and hung as a spy, it would kill me. For Heaven's sake, 
Brother J., don't come to Nashville ! It would frighten me to death. I 
cannot bear to think of your running such risks. Why, if they were to take 
you they would put you in an iron cage and carry you all over the country. 
I was 60 thankful you did not come. My dear husband is at Louisville, 
and that road is to be destroyed. If they would only wait until he gets 
home ! I came very near going with him, I wish I had ; then we would 
have been taken prisoners together, and been carried to ' Dixie.' I should 
have said to them, 'Please take me prisoner.' I hope Dr. C. will send 
Penny on to you. She is coming with him. She entreated to be sent for ; 
and, without consulting papa. Dr. C. went. Eliza and Caroline are in Cin- 
cinnati. I hear from mamma very often. She writes cheerfully. Ell is 
still with her. I sent for Cous. Nina this morning, and we have had a good 
time together. She is writing to you. I wish you could have passed on ua 
this morning. We had a good laugh about the silk dress from Kentucky. 
Do you know the ' Feds ' say he took fifteen hundred dollars' worth of fine 
silks from Elizabethtown ? Mrs. Fogg says she wants one: so you must not 
make them all up. I regret very much not having a dress ready-made to 
send you, but will have the next time I have any letter ready for you. 
Now, since I know I can send them, I shall always be thinking of getting 
ready. If they don't catch that poor man! I am miserable about him 
now. We don't see the bright side here, Mattie. It is nothing but gloom. 
When our prisoners come in we are sad, and go to work to clothe and feed 
them. These horrid prisons would make your heart sick. Hospitals on 
every street; and our poor wounded Confederates, how they did suffer! 
Many of them froze to death at Camp Douglas. Even the Journal spoke 
of their sufferings, but blamed the Confederate authorities. They were 
sent from here on boats that severe weather. Many of them were in a 
dying condition when they started. Dr. — — has resigned in disgust. I 
believe he is a good man. He took me to Murfreesborough after the battle, 



A SPY ON GENERAL MORGAN AND WIFE. 571 

when old Mitchell would not even allow mothers to go to look after their 
wounded sons. Poor Mrs. McNairy has Frank's body in the house yet. It 
was embalmed. She is afraid to bury it. Johnny Kirkman was buried by 
his mother's side. What do your army people think of that Fort Donelson 
affair ? From our point of view it seems to have been a miserable 'faur 
pas,' I can't understand AVheeler's being major-general of all the cavalry 
in Tennessee. Won't you explain ? You must take time, dear Mattie, and 
write me a long, satisfactory letter. Write me more of Alice and Horace. 
Tell me of General Hardee. Mamma is very fond of him. Has Hor. good 
clothing? I cannot forgive myself for not sending him; but it never 
occurred to my mind once that Bragg would retreat from Murfreesborough. 
I expected to see Rosecrans's army flying through Nashville, and ours enter 
in triumph. The disappointment was terrible and miserable. Poor old 
Rutherford county ! Such devastation ! The people have been robbed of 
every thing. Speaking of robbing, my horses have been taken. I never 
expect to have another pair, for when the war is over all the horses will be 
dead. I prized my horses very highly, and tried so hard to keep them ! 
How does Margaret behave, Mattie? I hope she makes herself useful to 
you. If she is good, give her a kind remembrance from me. My servants 
are the wonder of all my acquaintances. They are just as good as they 
have always been. I did not finish my letters to-day, and was constantly 
interrupted whilst writing. It is now almost the hour for 'our man' to 
come. Dr. C. did not come to-night. I am some troubled for fear the road 
will be torn up to-morrow and he will be detained. I send you, dear Mattie, 
the few little articles you sent for. There are very few really nice things in 
Nashville. Our old merchants have nothing. I send you some paper, and 
shall expect many good, long, sweet letters. Write me all about yourself 
and your dear husband. What would I not give to see you ! Cous. Nina 
sends much love, and will write the next time. I send you some letters to 
mail for our friends. Read this one for Charleston. Mrs. W. will write you 
all about ' Uncle Sam's Family.' Try and send me some Southern papers, 
Mattie ; they would be so acceptable. I cannot write more now. Good-bye. 

"Your devoted 

" Sis. 

(Postscript to General Morgan.) 

" Dear Brother :— Another little word for you. I am very anxious to see 
you, but you must not come whilst the/oe is near. 

"I need not say, take good care of Mattie. I know you will send me a 

letter whenever you can. If you could only witness the eagerness with 

which I receive them, you would feel fully repaid. We have so little to cheer 

us. Good-bye. Kiss Mattie for me. 

" Affectionately, 

" Sis. 

" P. S.— Nashville affords no English pins. I send Yankee ones. I must 



572 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

see you wear that ball-dress you made yourself. Take good care of it. I 
send you Godey, hoping it will prove acceptable in Dixie. 

(Additional to- Mrs. General Morgan.) 

"Sunday, Feb. 22, 1863. 

"My darling M. : — 'Our man' did not get off yesterday, as he expected: 
so I cannot refrain from sending you a postscript, which I expect will quite 
equal j'ours in length. How I long to be with you ! I do not realize that 
you are married, although your husband has taken a deep hold upon my 
affections. You know the reason — because Mattie is so devoted to him ; and 
then he tells me he is so happy. Dear M., you think the honeymoon will 
never pass, don't you ? I feel a little inclined to tease you, but I won't. 
There is that plaguey door-bell ! I never sit down to write but some one comes. 
Oh, 'tis some music good neighbor Fogg has left for Mattie. There is the 
bell again ! I have to go down. Now it is a man from Louisville, with 
messages from Brother Will. Poor Brother Will ! he has had an annoying 
time. If he does not come to-night, I shall give up looking for him. Ha 
sent the children a box of candy, and they send some to aunty. Matty S. 
says there is a bonnet for you and a hat for Uncle M. The dear little crea- 
ture wonders how mamma will send it. I told Rich a Federal officer would 
send it out with a flag of truce. He believes it. M. S. looks wise, and 
guesses better. I started with M. yesterday to have their photographs 
taken for you, but it commenced raining. I will have them taken, and 
send you. I must have a good likeness of General M. in return. The one 
I have is not good: it is something like the one you had with whiskers. 
He only wears moustache now. Do you want that black pomatum to black 
it? I send you six sticks. Is that enough? I could get no blue velvet, Mattie, 
for your riding-habit. IIow would blue cloth answer? Your gowns are not 
finished. You shall have them next time, but must not wear them. They 
are too thin for winter. I fear you will not like the corset ; but it is the 
best I could get. Do you want gloves ? , Make a memorandum, and I will 
fill it if I can. What has become of Kate and Mary R. ? Their mother is 
very anxious to hear from them. I send you some letters that I hope you 
can send. Mrs. W. is cra2y, I think. [Puss!] She says she is going South. 
You need not be surprised to see her at ijour Z^eafZ-quarters very soon. I do 
not make a coiifidant of her. I feel very uneasy about 'our man.' I gave 
him a note to papa. He lost yours. It frightens me for any one to run such 
risks. I am very glad 'accident prevented' that visit from your husband. 
He must not wear Federal uniform again. He will think, I am sure, it ia 
well I am not a soldier's wife. I send you Rosecrans's order. I am afraid 
of him and his ' detectives.' Times are not as they used to be when Negley 
was commandant.* 

" Sunday Night. — Brother Will has come at last. Penny declined coming 

'* No army police then.— Author. 



A SPY OX GENERAL MORGAN AND WIFE. 573 

with him. The deceitful creature ! I hope mamma -will be fully satisfied 

now that there is no hope of getting her. [A slave.] Will went to gratif- 

mamma. I have been writing this letter all day, Mattie. Havb had a 

visit from a Fed. officer since I commenced, and now Cous. Bob atd Will 

C. are sitting with us, all smoking pipes. I am almost suffocated. Will 

has told me of Brother John's visit to Springfield last summer or fall. 

There is a report here that Dave Yandell is dead. I hope it is not true. Do 

you think you can answer all my questions, dear M. ? Mrs. Fogg expresses 

great interest in you. Don't forget to send her a kind message in your next 

letter. Nina was much gratified a.t your kind mention of her. Poor Will 

will never be himself again. He walks very badly. Aunt Em is very 

miserable. Brother Will sends bushels of love, dear M., and wishes he could 

be with you. 'Tis now very late, and the man has not come. May-be he is 

a prisoner, and will never see this. Mattie, do you always pray for peace ? 

It is my most earnest prayer. God bless you, and protect you and your 

noble husband ! 

"Your devoted 

" Sis. 

" I will try and get you some paper like this. ' The man' says you want 
some. I used to write to Brother Charlie on this paper. My liege-lord saya 
I must stop writing to-night. I must obey. Good-night." 



Not only were the ladies thus wickedly deceived by "our man," but Gene- 
ral John Morgan was so completely sold by this — his own — spy, that we 
may reasonably suppose he has had his ears measured repeatedly of late, to 
ascertain their increased length. The following facts will show how Mor- 
gan's brother lost his liberty and "our man" came within view of a halter. 

Coming into Nashville on his second trip, he brought a letter from Captain 
Clarence Morgan (the general's brother), addressed to their mother, in 
Kentucky, to be mailed at Nashville. This letter advised the mother that 
its writer would be at Lexington, Kentucky, upon a certain day, and desired 
her to meet him there. This letter also contained the following note,— from 
the devoted Charlton Morgan to his lady-love, as it would seem:— 

"McMiNNViLLE, Feb. 14, 1863. 
"Dear Mollie :— Meet me at Lexington. I will be there in four or five 
days. Charlton." 

Directed to 

"Miss Mollie Williams, 

Care of Mrs. Mart Atkinson, 

Riisscllville, Kentucky.'* 

Of course, this letter came to the hands of the inevitable Colonel Truesdail, 



574 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

and he forthwith advises General Boyle, commandant at Louisville, The 
latter send? a force and arrests Captain Moi-gan, and he was sent to Camp 
Chase as a prisoner of war or a spy, — we are not positive which. 

Returning on his third trip to Morgan's head-quarters at McMinnville, 
"our man" found himself in trouble at once, and under arrest, as a traitor to 
the South. General John Morgan had received the day before a copy of the 
Nashville "Union," containing an account of the arrest and imprisonment of 
his brother in Ohio. He well remembered that Johnson had that letter in 
charge, and he could not imagine any other cause for the calamity than 
Johnson's betrayal of the trust. But "our man" was equal to the emer- 
gency. He swore by all that was blue above that he had faithfully carried 
the letter and placed it in the Nashville Post-Office, — which was true enough. 

" You know full well, general," said he, " that old Truesdail and his 
gang have the complete run of affairs at Nashville ; and if Captain Morgan 
was captured because of that letter, they must have read it while in that 
office. That the letter went to your mother is plain ; for it seems she got it, 
and met your brother; and it was by watching her that they caught him." 

What could Morgan say? Johnson was discharged from arrest. But 
matters were not easy, as before. Morgan was cloudy and ill at ease. 
Finally, Johnson was sent to TuUahoma and court-martialed, was tried, 
and discharged for want of convicting evidence. "Our man" was now satis- 
fied that his rdle was about ended, however. Suspicion once attaching to a 
spy, his work is done and his neck is spanned by the halter. It is only the 
blind, generous confidence that suspects nothing that serves the ends of the 
successful scout. Johnson returned to Nashville speedily and secretly. 
While at Tullahoma, however, he made the acquaintance of the rebel Gene- 
ral Forrest, who wished to employ him as a scout, with apparently full 
confidence in his loyalty to the South. But one trial by courtrmartial 
was enough for Johnson. 

Arrived at Nashville, he reported at midnight to the Chief of Police. 
The next day he was publicly arrested on the streets, as a spy of John Mor- 
gan, and thrown into the penitentiary, where had just been confined a large 
number of Nashville rebels, preparatory to being sent to the North and to 
the South. He obtained their confidence and sympathies, and "dug up" 
some items of much interest to the Union cause. 



Eacy Eebel Letters. 

The history of the Army of the Cumberland, and of the rebellion, would 
be incomplete, and the future historian would be robbed of one of his 
spiciest subjects, should we fail in preserving a sample of the letters of 
the bitter, shrewd, wild, reckless women of the South. That they are disL 
covered so plentifully by our secret police and through ordinary military 



RACY REBEL LETTERS. 575 

capture, &c., is no rea.son why their existence should be ignored. The action 
of the secession females of the South has already become history in outline 
and in notoriety: let us devote a page or two of the "Annals" to the minu- 
tiae of the subject. 

It is no wonder that the separated Southrons should write to and fro 
through our lines. Divided husbands and wives, parents and children 
far apart, sentimental bathers in moonlight, and revellers in absent lovers' 
dreams, most naturally take to pen and paper. Fully sympathizing with 
hundreds of aching hearts, the Chief of the Army Police devised many 
plans, and afforded convenient facilities, for the carrying of these soothing 
epistles. The Nashville Post-Office, and other adjacent post-oflBces, were 
open to their reception ; and old Uncle Samuel took them along, as usual, 
in his capacious mail-pouches, over hill and dale. But ah ! the many mid- 
night hours spent by prying clerks and secretaries in dampening the gmn of 
those envelopes, opening and reading the outpourings of Southern traitors' 
hearts, and airing the amorous sighs and tears of lovelorn maids and swains! 
Not only this, but Colonel Truesdail established a special "grape-vine" mail 
for Nashville and vicinity rebel dom, — so accommodating, indeed, that he 
actually employed daring Southron spies to evade the Yankee pickets, run 
the lines, and bring to the secesh doors at dark hours of night, or through 
back alleys and cellar-ways at mid-day, the dear missives from the South. 
Thus has he sent messengers from his office directly into their very parlors 
and inner chambers, where wines, gold, and rich gifts were lavished upon 
them with unsparing hand. 

The following letter, discovered while passing through the Nashville Post- 
OflBce, was written by a rebel officer. We entitle it 



" Mrs. McW- 



A Gossiping Letter. 

April 5th, 1S63. 



******** 
"Mrs. General Bragg has been dangerously ill at Winchester, Tenn. The 
general wrote Sweazy a few days since that the crisis was past, and she 
was now believed to be out of danger. The ' soldier' and S., you perceive, 
are, as ever, on favorable terms, and friendly. Mrs. General Morgan has 
been spending most of her time recently with her husband, at McMinnville, 
Tenn., where she visits the hospitals daily, in company with the general, 
to the gratification of all the boys. Miss Alice thinks so much of General 
Hardee that she actually kisses him whenever they meet. 

"Miss Lady Ewing, daughter of Hon. Andrew Ewing, told me a few days 
ago that the gentleman at whose house Miss Alice is stopping in Winchester 
says that he saw Miss Ready embrace and kiss General Hardee. The 
gentleman in question supposed the stranger, from his appearance, to be 
Miss Ready's father: so he advanced, and said,— 
" 'How do you do. Col. Ready?' 



676 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

" 'Col. Ready, indeed!' exclaimed Miss Alice. 'Allow me, sir, to intro- 
duce to your acquaintance my friend, Gen. Hardee.' 

"Astonishing as you may deem this, it can hardly be questioned, as Miss 
Lady herself said the gentleman himself told her what is herein related, 
and says the scene transpired at his own house. 

"Hardee is eminently a devotee* of society, — emphatically a lady's man. 
Last week he visited Huntsville, it is said, to see Mrs. Williamson, your 
classmate at the Nashville Academy. However, the general is quite gene- 
ral in his attentions to the ladies generally, and it is difficult to locate him. 

"Mrs. M., of Clark, has returned to Kentucky. She expects to be back in 
Dixie soon. She promised to write you from her old home. She passed 
here in company with Mrs. Gen. Helme. Is a young lady in years and 
appearance, of medium size, pleasant manner, and frank, cordial address, — 
not petite, yet handsome, and withal a woman of attractive social qualities. 
She is stopping in Athens, East Tennessee. So is Mrs. Gov. Foote. Mrs. 
E. M. Bruce, wife of an M. C. from Kentucky, in Confederate Congress, 
resides here. She dresses splendidly, and appears on public occasions 
glittering in diamonds. She attended a. soiree given Gen. Johnston some 
time since at this place, and it was remarked by all that she wore on that 
occasion more jewels than any lady had ever been known to wear in the 
South before. Her husband you may remember as a large Government 
contractor and pork-packer at Nashville during the early stages of the 
existing Revolution. He is very wealthy. Mrs. General Breckinridge is 
at Winchester. She is of a quiet, retiring disposition, and few have ever 
seen her there. Col. Wm. Breckinridge's wife is at Lexington. Sweazy 
has been contriving letters to her by the under-ground mail line. She was 
Miss Desha. His first wife was a Miss Clay, daughter of Charles Clay, and 
grand-daughter of great Harry of the West. You know the Breckinridges 
always marry into the oldest and most intellectual families.* 

"Mrs. Gen. Joe Johnston is at Jackson, Mississippi, but the general is at 
TuUahoma. Mrs. Gen. Buckner is with her husband at Mobile. Mrs. Gen. 
Wm. Bate is at her father's, in Huntsville. Mrs. Gen. Withers is at 
Shelby ville. So is Mrs. Gen. Geo. Massey. Mrs. Maj. Stevenson, Mrs. 
Maj. Cunningham, and Mrs. Maj. Schon are with their husbands, at 
Atlanta, Georgia. Maj. Gen. McCown, of Tenn., is under arrest for 
sending off one of his staff without Gen. Bragg's permission: so the 
newspapers state. Col. Burch Cook has resigned his commission in the 
C. S. Army: cause, bad health. Col. John Savage has resigned, because 
Lt. Col. Maurice J. Wright, his junior, was promoted over him. Public 
opinion justifies Savage's course. He is said to be very bitter in abuse of 
Gov. Harris and others. Though not popular personally, yet all admit that 
a better colonel than Savage was cannot be found in either army, while all 
equally agree that few, if any, would surpass him. 

"As Brigadier-General Bob Foster and his brother William make this place 

* Mrs. Bruae, above spoken of, has her chapter in this work. — Author. 



RACY REBEL LETTERS. 077 

head-quarters, Mrs. Boiling, of Nashville, is here. It is said she is treated 
with so much kindness (!) by Federals and others at Nashville, that she con 
templates an early return to the capital. At all events, such is the street- 
gossip, and is credited here. Henry Watterson, editor of ' Chattanooga 
Rebel,' is said to be very much in love with Miss Fogg, sister to the A. Q. M. 
Col. Reece, formerly paymaster in the Army of Tennessee ; ditto Miss Rut 
ledge. Lt. Cooper, of Georgia, it Is said, Is the fortunate suitor for the hand 
of Mollie Bang. Capt. Frank Green will be married to Miss Pattie so soon 
as the war ends. The Misses Ewing, of Nashville, are here, and receive 
much attention, of course. Yours, respectfully, visits them when he can, 
but not often. We hear funny— yes, very facetious — reports concerning a 

Miss B , of Edgefield. We have it in Dixie that she has been enlisting 

soldiers in our ranks. Is it so ? We hear But no matter ! We defer 

interrogations for those who write to us. The Southern prisoners, when out 
from Nashville, all have something to tell about Nashville girls. One tells 
us he heard Miss Bellie curse a Yankee soldier. 

" Dave Jackson passed here recently, en route to Richmond. When he 
returns, will hand him his mother's letter. Joe Pickett is in Charleston. 
Tom Cook left here on the 30th of March fur La. He was well,— well pleased 
with his visit to all. J. Jr. is sick. He has been confined to his room for two 
weeks. He has some kind of fever — nothing serious. Should he become 
seriously ill, will advise his father's family. Dr. Smith is at Winchester. 
He has letters from Edgefield dated 23d March. Shelby Williams is here, 
and wishes his wife to know he is well. Neil Brown, Jr., is travelling as 
special messenger for Major Bransford, Chief of Transportation at this place. 
Tom and Tully are with Capt. Cheney at Tullahoma. All quite well. 
Mr. McWhisten, at Kingston, and his father-in-law at Talladega, both well. 
John Green has gone to Atlanta to live. Rawworth and Morgan remain. 
Ike, Dan, Gabe, and Allen are here— all well. Muss Goodbar is in distress. 

He has not received his , and his has been broken up. The wagon 

gentleman is thought to be doing well. He is at Gainesborough. His sister's 
letter was forwarded to him. He sends us many newspapers. Mr. Darrah, 
of Breckinridge's stafi", is in Lagrange, Georgia, making love to Miss Lucy 
Seifer. Maggie S. and Fanny C. are both well, aiid both wish to return. 
Bob B. has been advised to tell them to stay where they are— the former, at 

least— until . Tom Cook's ambrotype and Dave Jackson's photographs 

are here in our keeping for their friends and relations at home." 

The foregoing letter was addressed to Mrs. Dr. A. G. McWhorter, residing 
at Edgefield, opposite Nashville, a noted admirer of Southern "rights," and 
an uncompromising rebel, whose husband we have heard mentioned as a 
surgeon in the Confederate army. 

, The following are extracts from letters written by rebel citizens of Nash- 
ville, to be sent through our lines, and which were intercepted and passed 
upon or pigeon-holed by the Chief of the Army Police, as was deemed 

advisable. 

37 



578 ARMY POLICE RECORD, 

(A Lady in Connecticut to her mother, Mrs. B. Piurgle, at Charleston, S.C. 
Sent by Mrs. Cheathav to Mrs. Morgan, to be mailed.) 

[Extract,] — "E.ecent events show so plainly that, if man proposes, God 
disposes. You can imagine how I shuddered when I heard Federal officers 
tell their friends how easily my dear old home is to be captured ; their plan 
being to run their iron monsters so close under Sumter that her guns ccumot 
be depressed, while they fire their Satanic balls of 450 pounds each at lier 
walls, and crumble them as they wish. You know these iron boats fire two 
guns from one side, making a discharge of 900 pounds, they say, upon 
Sumter. God grant that your noble B. [Beauregard] knows more about this 
than the ' Feds' imagine \" 

We have not space to spare for the insertion of the above letter, entire, as 
it merits. Its author, to judge her by her letter, is one of the wildest rebel 
women yet put upon our record, — albeit she is enjoying all the rights, privi- 
leges, and comforts of a Connecticut home. The Chief of Police very 
greatly regrets that he was unable to ascertain her name and publish it in 
this connection. There was no signature attached to the letter. 



(From " Gkrtrude," at Nashville, to Frank S. Scott, February 19, 186.3.) 

[Extract.] — "When will redemption from these despots come to us? 
When — how long — ere with shouts of joy we shall make the welkin ring at 
the entrance of our South' s noble boys ? Come ! We crouch to the foe, and 
await but your coming to spring up and help you to strike for liberty !" 



(From Gertrude to "Rob," February 19, 1863.) 

[Extract.] — "To say you were in the battle of Murfreesborough, that 
admits you into the confi'dence and hearts of all Southern friends. Bravely, 
boldly, gloriously, knights of imperial valor, you withstood the overwhelming 
numbers of the Huns, who indeed have proved the ' scourge' of God. From 
atrocities committed, they place themselves in history with the Flemish 
banditti under William de la Mark ; and our defenders climb to the summit 
of chivalry and nobility's heights, and o'ershadow the Scottish Archers' 
Body-Guard, who existed and fought at the same date in history. Perhaps 
ere this reaches you another Golgotha will sadden the land, already draped 
in ' trappings of war.' Once more our sacred soil will receive to its keeping 
those caskets rifled of the pearl which makes them so beautiful, so dear to 
friends and associates. Not many sweet smiles and kindly words are -"vasted 
on the would-be elegant officers of the grand Federal Army. Arrests are 



RACY REBEL LETTERS. 



579 



atiU being made, Doulgan & Callioua being the last victims I have heard 
of. 'Tis said they are to be held as hostages for two Yankee pedlars taken 
by General J. H. Morgan. The penitentiary received them as inmates. 
Forty-six escaped a night or two since, one being a spy for the general just 
mentioned. Frank McNairy and Johnnie Kirkman's remains have^beea 
brought up and buried. The former had not been treated as we heard." 



(From " Nannie," Balcony Place, Nastvills, February 20, 1862, to 
Dr. L. T. Payne, per Dr. Williams, S.C.A.) 

«'You have doubtless heard of that unfortunate affair at Fort Donelson, 
which resulted in a defeat, with the loss of some gallant officers, among 
whom were my brother-in4aw's youngest brother and nephew,-^the choicest 
flower of our land. So young, too ! But the hardest of all is, after treating 
the corpse with every indignity possible, they [the Federals] refused even a 
Christian burial: not a prayer at the grave, nor any demonstration what^ 
ever 1" 



(From Mks. Williams [Nashville], Home, February 20, to her husband, 
Robert A. Williams.) 

"Poor Colonel Frank's [meaning Frank McNairy] remains are still at his 
uiother's. She is almost a maniac, and cannot decide what to do. as he has 
been denied the right of a Christian burial. Is it not sad .' 

[N.B.-General Rosecrans refused any other than a respectful private 
burial.] 

(From -, Nashville, February 20, 1853, to her sister, Mrs. H. J. Jones.) 

•^nwn Thpre is more good accompii^neu vy icu^a, " „ , , r„ii 

Johnston, and unjust vengeance is muttered. 



580 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

(From Mrs. Dr. Hall to her brother in the Confederate Army.) 

[Extr(fct] — "The detective police system here exceeds any thiug you ever 
saw. Mot wisliiug to fall into their hands, I have not even asked for a pass 
these three months." 

The foregoing letters and extracts may well be preserved, as evidence of 
the course of Southern women. 



A Cincinnati Spy. 



For several months past the Army of the Cumberland has known a jovial, 
smiling, wide-awake personage (a native of the " Green Isle," but who is 
remarkably well cut-and-dried and seasoned, nevertheless), by the name of 
M. E. Joyce. He corresponds for different Northern papers, visits around 
among the camps, is always in with his laugh and his story, and is as fond 
of accompanying an expedition, sharing danger, and having a rough time, 
as " any other man." 

Who of our army officers does not remember little Joyce, — or " Jice," as 
we term him ? That he is useful as well as ornamental, and that his brains 
were put in pretty nearly the right place, let the following facts be ample 
proof. 

In November last, while plodding in the vicinity of Nashville, crossing over 
from one camp to another, our hero was picked up, or, rather, pulled down, 
from his horse by some rebel guerrillas or patrols. He was rather taken 
aback; but for an instant only. lie was soon entirely "aisy" with them, — 
telling them all sorts of a story, and, as he states it, "letting on secesh like 

the d 1," as a butternut citizen. Satisfied that he was "a good enough 

Morgan" for them, he was not retained long; and he hastily scrambled 
back to the city, highly elated with his adventure. 

"Hark'ee, now, Joyce; you are just my man," said Colonel Truesdail. 
" You can go to Murfreesborough without any trouble, — can get me the 
information we desire. I will get you a good horse and outfit, and pay you 
three hundred dollars for the trip, if you are quick and smart." 

The newspaper-man's chuckle rounded into an attentive period, as he 
pondered over the idea, and heard all about the "how to do it" from the 
Chief of Police, He was to ride boldly up to the rebel lines and claim to be 
the regular correspondent of the Cincinnati "Enquirer," — a man of con- 
servative sentiments, who was friendly to the South, was opposed to the 
war, was in the Union army as regular correspondent, had ^written some- 
thing to offend General Rosecrans, and the latter had imprisoned and abused 
him ; and he was now determined to injure Rosecrans and his crowd all he 
could. Joyce liked the idea. It was novel and feasible, — would take 
him into tall company, and would pay well. Joyce, therefore, prepared ; 



A CINCINNATI SPY. 581 

and about the 25th of November last he sallied forth as boldly as would th<, 
knight of La Mancha, and as happy as Sancho, his squire, when at his best 
estate, as " governor of an island." 

The joke and Joyce succeeded admirably. He was taken to Murfrees- 
borough, and into the august presence of Bragg. He told his tale with an 
air of injured innocence, and swore great oaths of vengeance against the 
"stupid Dutchman," the leader of the Yankee fanatics and cowards at 
Nashville, &c. His assertions were partially borne out by one of General 
Bragg's principal officers, who stated that he had recently seen an account 
in a Nashville or Louisville paper of a difficulty with some writer of the 
Cincinnati " Enquirer," whom the Union commander had imprisoned and 
then banished from his army lines. 

Bragg was not a little pleased at the incident. A tyrant in his own 
"bailiwick," he was gratified to hear of the malignant fanaticism and injus- 
tice of the opposing commander. 

"I am glad to see you, sir," he said, addressing the humble representative 
of Cincinnati, "for I respect your occupation and admire the men who 
employ you. The Cincinnati 'Enquirer' is the only paper in the West that 
does the cause of the South even common justice. I will protect you within 
my lines, and render your stay as comfortable as possible." 

Mr. Joyce was thankful and at ease : he always is. He was again slightly 
severe on the "Dutchman" in command at Nashville, and on the "Abolition 
fanatics" of the North, and, now that he was in the proper position, it 
should not be his fault if he did not write home to the Cincinnati *' Enquirer" 
some homely truths, pro bono jm-blico. His only fear was that he would 
not be able to send his productions to the " Enquirer." 

"Never fear about that," replied General Bragg: " I will see to that. My 
man John Morgan is superintendent of the railroad-system in the Southwest, 
and will get your letters through by first trains." 

Pleased with the conceit, Bragg and Joyce both smiled over a nip of quite 
new and sharp Robertson county whiskey. Supper being announced, Joyce 
was invited to the table, and, with the usual modes+y and timidity of his 
ancestry in the ascendant, he sat down to his rations of beans, coffee, and 
corn bread. Bragg and his staff were there assembled, and the tale of Joyce 
was again unfolded to admiring auditors. After supper Joyce retired to a 
vacant corner, and with pen and paper he toiled for an hour, writing up one 
of the most scathing and glowing diatribes upon low-lived "Dutchmen" and 
high-toned gentlemen, the horrors of war, the blessings of peace, and the 
ignorance and folly of Northern Abolitionists and fanatics. The epistle was 
properly enveloped, addressed in style (for Joyce is an elegant and rapid 
penman) to the editor of the Cincinnati " Enquirer," and handed to an aide of 
General Bragg's to be forwarded by the Morgan line ; and thus ended the task 
of our quondam correspondent. He strolled over the town in company with 
an under-officer or two, and a fair cigar. To his companions he expatiated 
'argely upon Nashville army affairs and Northern sentiments and sympa- 
H 



582 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

tliies ; ar d i'. need not be specially set down, for aught we know, that he told 
any more of " whoppers" than the time and occasion would warrant. 

Next day the man of the " Enquirer," after breakfasting with some officers 
at Bragg's head-quarters, set out to view the town, as per assurance of the 
officers that he was quite at liberty to do. The railroad-depot, the store 
houses, the outer works, &c., were visited, in the most indifferent and uncon- 
cerned manner. Ere long, however, some military officer, dressed up in a 
little " brief authority," accosted our explorer after items and demanded 
that he give an account of himself. 

"To the divil with ye! An' is it the likes of you that is afther stoppin' 
me and axin' me name an' business? Go to Major-General Bragg, an' he'll 
tell ye who I am !" 

The officer was not to be thus put aside : he collared Joyce forthwith, and 
led him to the provost-marshal's office, near by, supposing him to be a shirk- 
ing soldier or skulking conscript. The provost-marshal was of the same 
opinion. 

"I'll send you to your regiment. What is it?" asked the marshal. 

"You'll not do the likes at all, now," said Joyce; "for I don't belong to 
any." 

"Oh, ho! you don't? Then you're just the man I want ; for I know of a 
regiment that has just room for you," replied the marshal. 

Matters began to look serious for Joyce. The town was all astir, for this 
was but a few days before the battle of Stone River. He told his story to 
the marshal, and it was agreed that if he should go back at once to Bragg's 
head-quarters and get a pass, or endorsement, it would be all right. Joyce 
did so ; and an actual pass was granted to him, over Bragg's sign manual, 
giving him the run of the town, — which pass Joyce showed to the marshal 
with considerable glee and, withal, a slight taste of impudent defiance. 

After looking about the town, our correspondent took the cars for a trip 
down towards Bridgeport, — was away two or three days, going as far as 
Atlanta, Ga., ascertained the general condition of the rebel rear, and 
returned to Murfreesborough. Again he basked at times in the presence of 
General Bragg and his officials, and wrote lively and caustic philippics for the 
able " Enquirer," and sat at Bragg's table and discussed the war and his mut- 
tons. And, to cap the very climax of absurdity and impudence, our man 
mounted his "Rosinante" — the horse he sallied forth with from the police 
stable at Nashville — and rode out to one or more of the grand division reviews 
with President Jefferson Davis, Bragg, and his escort, — Davis being then on 
his Southern tour. 

It was now time for Joyce to be off, while his budget was full of news and 
the signs were favorable. Some officers invited him on the night of the review 
to go out with them to see some fair maids and have a good time. The gh-ls 
were at an out-of-the-way place ; and the less said about their chastity the 
better, — so reports Joyce. Arrived there, the party dismount, hitch their 
horseg, and make themselves agreeable within-doors. Joyce watches his 



TWO REBEL ".CONGRESSMEN'S" WIVES. 583 

opportunity, slips out for a moment, untied the horses and turns them loost 
In the darkness to prevent possible pursuit, stealthily mounts his own horse— 
or, more probably, the best one of the lot— and makes off for dear life. He 
was fortunate enough to elude the pickets, the night being very dark ; and 
ere morning he made his way across to the Cumberland River, and thence 
to the Federal lines. 

His information was received with the liveliest satisfaction, and the joke 
thus perpetrated upon both Bragg and the Cincinnati " Enquirer" was the talk 
of the day. Its importance can be estimated when we state that the Union 
army advanced towards Murfreesborough a short time after his return. His 
statements were corroborated by two other spies just in from Murfrees- 
borough, and two days after his return there ea,me into our lines a most 
respectable citizen, previously and now a merchant of Murfreesborough, 
who also confirmed Joyce's story, not only as to his army information, but 
as to the role he had played and the manner in which it was done. 

There is something more than a joke left in the mind of the thoughtful, 
patriotic reader. There is a future, when the actions,- the motives, and the 
errors of men will be truly judged by posterity. That time will soon come 
throughout the United States, if it is not already here. The editors of the 
Cincinnati "Enquirer" will be arraigned before that bar of enlightened, patri- 
otic public opinion, and the question will be asked, Where was their influ- 
ence during the darkest hours of the slaveholders' rebellion against liberty 
and human rights as guaranteed to their descendants by the Eevolutionary 
fathers ? " 



Two Eebel "Congressmen's" Wites. 

On the evening of the 26th of December last, a carriage containing two 
ladies and three children, and trunks and packages betokening the party to be 
travellers, came to the picket-line of the Army of the Cumberland, some four 
miles out from Nashville, on the road leading from Murfreesborough. Being 
utter strangers, and having no pass or permission to enter our lines, they were 
sent in to head-quarters under guard, as is the invariable rule. 

Arrived in Nashville, the carriage was driven to the office of the Chief 
of Army Police, and the case was investigated by the provost-judge, in con- 
junction with the Chief of Police. The facts elicited were as follows, and 
were freely and candidly stated by the ladies. 

Their names, Mrs. L. B. Bruce and Mrs. E. B. Burnett,— late residents of 
Kentucky. Their husbands, thev . .,, ..ow resided within the lines of the 
Southern Confederacy,— were at that time In or about Richmond, Virginia, in 
attendance upon the so-called Confederate Congress, of which body they 
claimed to be members, representing two Congressional districts of the State 
of Kentucky. These men had been members of the United States Congress 
^or those districts at the breaking out of the rebellion. They seceded and joined 



584 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

the Confederate Congress, declaring at the same time that Kentucky had 
also seceded. For thirteen months past these ladies had lived within the 
lines of the uew Government, they stated, their husbands being thus "in 
Congress" a portion of the time : the balance of the year they had dwelt in 
East Tennessee, as near to "the old Kentucky home" as they could well get. 

In reply to queries of the provost-judge, the ladies stated that they had 
come to our lines in order to pass through to their homes in Kentucky. 
When informed that he feared this might not be permitted, they were appa- 
rently astonished. 

"What! stop women and children from passing to their homes?" they 
exclaimed. 

Even so. But they were assured that their cases should be stated to the 
general commanding, whose decision would be final. The ladies were 
much distressed at the thought of being prevented from "going home." 
Mrs. Burnett said she had two little sons in Kentucky, and all her relatives 
and friends, whom she had not seen for thirteen months, nor heard from 
for many weeks. Mrs. Bruce said she was the daughter of ex-Governor Helm, 
who resided at Elizabethtown, Ky. She must go home to her parents, for a 
cause that was plainly apparent, — her approaching confinement. 

The day had been raw and cold, for it was mid-winter, and the ladies and 
children were chilled, tired, and dismal in feeling indeed. They were made 
as comfortable as possible before a cheerful fire. Some remnants of Christ- 
mas confectionery, stowed away in the pigeon-holes of the judge's desk, 
were distributed to the little ones, who devoured them as only children can. 
Remarking their glee, one of the mothers observed, — 

"Ah, sir! that is the first candy they have had for a long time. There is 
none to be had where they have just come from." 

The ladies further- stated that they presumed they would remain 
permanently in Kentucky. When told that this would involve entire 
separation from their husbands, they looked blank astonishment; and tbey 
knew not whaWto answer when informed that if allowed to pass on to 
Kentucky they probably would not be permitted to return. They appeared 
to realize very feebly, if at all, the actual condition of their section of the 
country, — and had been of the opinion that, as ladies and non-combatants, 
they could pass about as freely as in times past. 

They stated, also, that they had taken this latter step of their own accord, — 
their husbands neither advising nf)r restraining them. Mrs. Bruce said her 
husband had expressed to her his fears, or doubts, when they parted, that 
perhaps the Federals would not receive them within their lines. 

The pseado-Cougressmen had come with their wives and babes to Mur- 
freesborough, and there left them ^:j . . ^ turned to East Tennessee and Rich- 
mond, — to their warm and congenial nests in that mansion of political bliss, 
the Confederate Congress, coniposed of Virginia and Carolina negro-driving 
aristocrats. 

Without detaining the ladies and their little ones longer, they were 
driven to the St. Cloud Hotel, and the best in the house was speedily at 



TWO REBEL " congressmen's" WIVES. 585 

their disposal. The Chief of Police made up his report of the facts, and 
sent it forthwith to the general commanding. The report, ere midnight had 
elapsed, elicited the following response. For the sake of brevity we omit 
the formalities and signatures of the documents: — 

"Sir: — In your report of this evening you state that two ladies, their chil- 
dren and baggage, with vehicle and driver, came to our lines without permit 
to enter ; that they were apprehended and reported to your oflSce. Their 
statements made in writing are to the effect that they are the wives of men 
prominent in aiding and abetting the rebellion, who now seek protection from 
a great and good Government which their husbands are aiming to destroy. 

" The Provost-Marshal General will provide conveyance for these ladies and 
their children beyond these lines in the direction of Murfreesborough, from 
whence they say they came ; or they may be carried quite to Murfreesbo- 
rough, upon the pledge of the ladies, for themselves and for their husbands and 
friends, guaranteeing the safe and speedy return of the driver and carriage. 

"By command of," &c. &c. 

Early the next morning the following order was handed in to the ladies' 
rooms, at their hotel : — 

" The ladies herein referred to — Mrs. Bruce and Mrs. Burnett — are respect- 
fully informed that, in accordance with the foregoing order of the general 
commanding, a conveyance will be.in attendance upon you at eight o'clock 
to-morrow (Saturday) morning, to convey you as indicated. 
"Respectfully, yours," &c. 

So far had the case progressed, when an unseen difficulty sprung up. 
This day the Federal army was under orders to march on to Murfreesborough, 
and the awful scenes of the tragedy of Stone River were about to 
commence. No hack-driver nor team could be hired in Nashville to 
take the party back to Murfreesborough, for fear of trouble — conscription, 
confiscation, etc. — upon the road, lined as it was with rebel guerrillas and 
thousands of rebel troops. At length the Chief of Police procured one of 
bis own employes, and pressed the horses and carriage of a colored hack- 
man, upon the ladies' giving the following document to satisfy the unwilling 
driver : — 

"Nashville, Tenn., December 27, 1862. 
"Mr. George F. Moore.— Sir :— This is to assure you that you, in under- 
taking to drive us to Murfreesborough, will not be molested by the forces or 
pickets of the Confederate Army; and we guarantee your safe and speedy 
return to Nashville upon the day following our arrival at Murfreesborough, 
or at safe quarters for us within the Confederate lines. 

" Mrs. L. B. Bruce. 
" Mrs. E, S, Burnett. 



586 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

While giving this assurance to their driver, the ladies cried as if their 
hearts would break at their disappointment and unlucky predicament. They 
complained of the destitution and discomfort of life at the South, and of 
their long absence from children, parents, &c. ; and there was much sym- 
pathy expressed for them by the officers at head-quarters, who, nevertheless, 
acknowledged the justice and necessity of the action of their general. The 
Chief of Police having made all needful arrangements, the carriage was 
ordered up, when a heavy rain-storm set in, continuing until after dinner, 
and their departure was postponed until the next day. Perceiving the scanti- 
ness of the children's clothing, &c., he gave the ladies permission to purchase 
such articles of personal comfort as they might desire, — a privilege eagerly 
accepted. They shopped for two or three hours during that afternoon, each 
purchasing some twenty dollars' worth of small articles, for which they 
gave orders on their relatives in Kentucky to the obliging storekeepers, the 
ladies being quite without money, it seemed. 

The next morning the rain was falling briskly, — a continuous drizzle. The 
carriage was at hand, and the party was ensconced therein, they receiving 
due attention from several officers about head-quarters. New blankets were 
purchased, to wrap around the children and to stop up the cracks of the 
carriage-doors. It was a miserable day ; the army was in motion, too, and 
there was fighting going on out on the Murfreesborough pike, cannon- 
ading being heard at intervals. A circuitous route of over forty-five miles 
must be travelled to avoid the armies. The carriage drove away upon its 
tedious, dreary journey, and at nine o'cl6ck that night entered the town of 
Murfreesborough. There all was on the qui vive. The rebel army was pre- 
paring to meet General RosecraAS on Stone River, a mile or two north of 
the town, and the people feared that the place might be destroyed ere the 
contest was decided. After inquiring all over the town, shelter was at 
last found for the exhausted party. But times were stirring. People were 
fleeing. Our Congressmen's wives and little ones were among the early 
birds next day, leaving Murfreesborough before daylight for their husbands 
in Richmond, Virginia, or in East Tennessee, by the five o'clock train. One 
of them remembered her pledge, and spoke to an officer about her driver. 
The officer may have promised ; but that was all. The next day our man 
was allowed the run of the town ; but as for a pass through the lines to Nash- 
ville, nobody had any ears for his case. The battles of Stone River com- 
menced a day or two afterwards, and the driver and his team were pressed 
to haul in wounded soldiers from the battle-field to the town hospitals. 
When the rebel army evacuated in the night, they carried off his horses and 
vehicle, and would have taken him, he thinks, had he not hidden himself 
in an old outbuilding or house and escaped the notice of their press-gangs, 
which swept over the place, taking the active negroes and able-bodied white 
men with their army. 

Upon the Union troops entering Murfreesborough, the most joyful man of 
the hour was this carriage-driver. As for the team, it was gone, none knew 
whither, and must be paid for. The non-return of our driver also frustrated 



TWO REBEL " CONGRESSMEN'S" WIVES. 587 

a very nice little arrangement our police had planned, — to make a good spj 
of the driver on the rebel movements at Murfreesborough ! 

Some weeks now elapsed, and the matter had quite passed from mind 
(except an occasional dun from the poor darkey at Nashville, whose carriage 
and horses were gone, and for which he was promised payment), when the 
Chief of Police learned that these ladies — or at least one of them — had 
arrived in Kentucky ; and, without any desire to harass rebel women, but 
simply to recover the value of the lost property, to pay it over to its owner, 
he resolved to investigate the matter still further. 

The discovery was accidental; and we relate it as an apt illustration 
of the importance of apparent trifles, all through life. John Morgan's gang 
had made their raid into Kentucky, destroying the Louisville & Nashville 
Railroad, some two weeks before, and stages were now running between the 
break, where two very high trestle-work bridges were destroyed, at Mul- 
draugh's Hill. One niorning, at Elizabethtown, before daylight, the stage- 
agent overheard two negro hostlers conversing about affairs at " Mass'r 
Helm's," while currying their horses. Says one of them, — a bright, likely 
slave, owned by ex-Governor Helm, of that town, — 

" I say, Joe, somefin gwine on at mass'r's house. Did yer know dat?" 

"What is it, Bill? Didn't know of nufan." 

"Well, ole mass'r's daughter, Mrs. Bruce, has jest slipped in from de 
Souf ; and quite a time dar last night, shore." 

The stage-man was from Nashville, and conversant with the facts above 
related. He questioned the negro, and learned that Mrs. Bruce had got 
home secretly, via the Cumberland Gap route. As the train went down 
to Nashville next day, he saw the provost-judge of the department on 
the train, by mere chance: he also happened to remember, as a simple 
incident, the conversation of the negroes ; and he asked, for information, 
whether the general had revoked his decision respecting the traitors' wives. 
Proper steps were now taken ; and thus, ere the lapse of many days, the 
vigilant Chief of Police was officially apprized that one of these ladies — Mrs. 
Bruce — had arrived at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and was then at her 
father's house. He reported the case to head-quarters, with the following 
order as the result : — 

"Sir:— Your report respecting the return of one, and probably of two, 
ladies,— Mrs. L. B. Bruce and Mrs. E. S. Burnett,— wives of two notable 
rebels, formerly of Kentucky, and now assuming to be members of Congress 
in the so-called Congress of the rebels at Richmond, Virginia, claiming to 
represent the loyal State of Kentucky therein, has been submitted to the 
general in command. 

"You state in said report that one of the ladies in question, after having 
been refused entrance within these lines at Nashville, and having been sent 
back to the rebel army at Murfreesborough in December last, has^ since 
then passed into Kentucky through the Cumberlands without permission of 
the United States Government or military authorities, and is now in our 



588 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

midst, i"i the enjoyment of rights and privileges due only to loyn,! citizens, 
the husband of this lady meanwhile being still at his nefarious work of 
violence against the nation and fraud upon the people of Kentucky. 

"As appears from documents in the office, copies of which are hereto 
annexed, the ladies in question were furnished with a carriage and two 
horses and a driver, to convey them from our lines back to Murfreesborough, 
they guaranteeing safe and speedy return to head-quarters of the same. 
You report that said property was never returned, but was taken South by 
the rebels when they evacuated Murfreesborough several days thereafter. 
Also you report the special guarantee to the driver of the carriage (a copy 
of which is also hereto annexed) was not in the least observed by the ladies 
in the premises nor by the rebel authorities, and that said driver was held 
as a prisoner, and hid himself in a building when the rebels evacuated Mur- 
freesborough, to prevent their forcing him away as a prisoner or conscript. 

" This exceeding bad faith on the part of the ladieS above named, coupled 
with their act of stealing within our lines against the express order in their 
case, has received the serious consideration of the general commanding. 

"You are herewith ordered to send a competent officer to where they may 
chance to be, if within this department, and there demand and receive 
speedy and full payment for the value of the said horses and carriage, and 
also proper compensation to the driver for his wrongful detention, the 
amount being left to your judgment, or others who knew the property and 
its value ; and, in case of refusal of said persons so to do, you will have them 
arrested at once and sent to these head-quarters. 

"If not in this department, you will confer with proper authorities where 
they are. You will, further, prepare a full statement of the case, together 
with a copy of this order, and transmit the same to Brigadier-General Boyle, 
presenting the case to him as to whether he deems such persons, under such 
peculiar circumstances, entitled to residence within his lines. 

" You will report especially to these head-quarters your action in these 

premises, 

" By order of," &c. &c. 

In accordance with the above order, an officer was sent to Kentucky, who 
found one of the "Congressmen's" wives at the house of her father, 
ex-Governor Helm, in the full enjoyment of all the blessings — peace, com- 
fort, and dry-goods — vouchsafed to her people by the good old Union. The 
lady prayed that she might be allowed to stay. Her father begged and 
implored. He paid nine hundred dollars cash for the lost horses and carriage ; 
and the lady was permitted to remain, as a matter of humanity. Thus ended 
a chain of events which at the time created no little remark in official army 
circles ; and, although of no remarkable importance as respects war results, 
these cases may well be preserved as matter of minor history for future 
reading, which will " point a moral or adorn a tale." 

As will be seen by reference to "A Gossiping Letter," in this volume, 
written by a rebel officer to a seoesh lady of Nashville, our frimd Mrs. 
Bruce soon returned to the land of Dixie, where she has since '".ut a very 



MORFORD, THE DARING SPY. 589 

BUperior figure, through the aid of silks, jeweh-y, &c., that she was able to 
purchase at Louisville and eastward, probably from the pay of the bogus 
Congressman her husband, and from his army contracts with the Southern 
clique of masters. 



Morford, tlie Daring Spy. 

"John Morford" — so let us call him, good reader — was born near 
Augusta, Georgia, of Scotch parents, in the year 1832. A blacksmith by 
trade, he early engaged in railroading, and at the opening of the rebellion 
was master-mechanic upon a prominent Southern road. Being a strong 
Union man, and making no secret of it, he was discharged from his situation 
and not allowed employment upon any other railroad. A company of 
cavalry was also sent to his farm, and stripped it. Aggrieved at this whole- 
sale robbery, Morford went to John H. Morgan, — then a captain, — and in- 
quired if he would not pay him for the property thus taken. Morgan 
replied that he should have his pay if he would only prove his loyalty to the 
South. Morford acknowledged this to be impossible, and was thereupon 
very liberally cursed and vilified by Morgan, who accused him of harboring 
negroes and traitors, and threatened to have him shot. Finally, however, 
he was content with simply arresting him and sending him, charged with 
disloyalty, to one Major Peyton. 

The major seems to have been a somewhat talkative and argumentative 
man ; for upon Morford's arrival he endeavored to reason him out of his 
adherence to the Union, asking him, in the course of a lengthy conversation, 
many questions about the war, demonstrating, to his own satisfaction at 
least, the necessity and justice of the position assumed by the seceded 
States, and finishing, by way of clenching the argument, with the inquiry, 
" How can you, a Southern man by birth and education, be opposed to the 
South ?" Morford replied that he saw no reason for the rebellion, that the 
Union was good enough for him, that he should cling to it, and, if he could 
obtain a pass, would abandon the Confederacy and cast his lot with the 
North. The major then argued still more at length, and, as a last resort, 
endeavored to frighten him with a vivid description of the horrors of "negro 
equality,"— to all of which his hearer simply replied that he was not afraid ; 
whereupon, as unskilful advocates of a bad cause are prone to do, he 
became very wrathy, vented his anger in a torrent of oaths and vile epithets, 
and told Morford that he ought to be hung, and should be in two weeks. 
The candidate for hempen honors, apparently not at all alarmed, coolly 
r..plied that he was sorry for that, as he wished to live a little longer, but, 
if it must be so, he couldn't help it. Peyton, meanwhile, cooled down, and 
told him that if he would give a bond of one thousand dollars and take the 



690 ARMY POLICE RECOHD. 

oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy he would release him and 
protect his property. After some hesitation, — -no other plan of escape 
occurring to him,- — Morford assented, and took the required oath, upon the 
back of which Peyton wrote, " If you violate this, I will hang you." 

"With this safeguard, Morford returned to his farm and lived a quiet life. 
Buying a span of horses, he devoted himself to the cultivation of his land, 
seeing as few persons as he could, and talking with none. His house had 
previously been the head-quarters of the Union men, but was now deserted 
by them ; and its owner endeavored to live up to the letter of the obligation 
he had taken. For a short time all went well enough ; but one day a squad 
of cavalry came with a special written order from Major Peyton to take 
his two horses, which they did. This was too much for human nature; and 
Morford, perceiving that no faith could be placed in the assurances of those 
in command, determined to be revenged upon thom and their cause. Hia 
house again became a secret rendezvous for Unionists ; and by trusty agents 
he managed to send regular and valuable information to General Buell,— 
then in command in Tennessee. At length, however, in May, 18G2, he was 
betrayed by one in whom he had placed confidence, and arrested upon the 
charge of sending information to General Crittenden, at Battle Creek. He 
indignantly denied the charge, and declared that he could easily prove him- 
self innocent if released for that purpose. After three days' confinement, 
this was assented to ; and Morford, knowing full well that he could not do 
what he had promised, made a hasty retreat and fled to the mountains, 
whence, some days afterwards, he emerged, and went to McMinnville, at 
which place General Nelson was then in command. 

Here he remained until the rebel force left that vicinity, when he again 
went home, and lived undisturbed upon his farm until Bragg returned with 
his army. The presence in the neighborhood of so many oflBcers cognizant 
of his former arrest and escape rendered flight a second time necessary. 
He now went to the camp of General Donelson, with whom he had some 
acquaintance, and soon became very friendly there, — acting the while in 
the double capacity of beef-contractor for the rebel army and spy for General 
Crittenden. Leaving General Donelson after some months' stay, although 
earnestly requested to remain longer, Morford next found his way to Nash* 
ville, where he made numerous expeditions as a spy for General Negley. 
Buell was at Louisville, and Nashville was then the Federal outpost. Mor- 
ford travelled about very readily upon passes given him by General Donel- 
son, making several trips to Murfreesborough and one to Cumberland Gap. 

Upon his return from the latter, he was arrested near Lebanon, Tennessee, 
about one o'clock at night, by a party of four soldiers upon picket-duty at 
that point. -Halting him, the following conversation occurred:-— 

" Where do you live ?" 

" Near Stewart's Ferry, between here and Nashville." 

" Where have you been, and what for?" 

" Up to see my brother, to get from him some jeans cloth and socks for 
another brother in the Confederate army." 



MORPORD, THE DARING Sl>^, 591 

"How does it happen you are not in the army yourself? That looks 
rather suspicious." 

" Oh, I live too near the Federal lines to be conscripted." 

" AVell, we'll have to send you to Murfreesborough. I reckon you're all 
right ; but those are our orders, and we can't go behind them," 

To this Morford readily consented, saying he had no objection; and the 
party sat down by the fire and talked in a friendly manner for some time. 
Morford soon remembered that he had a bottle of brandy with him, and 
generously treated the crowd. Further conversation was followed by a 
second drink, and soon by a third. One of the party now proposed to 
exchange his Hosinantish mare for a fine horse which Morford rode. The 
latter was not inclined to trade; but objection was useless, and he finally 
yielded, receiving seventy-five dollars in Confederate money and the mare. 
The trade pleased the soldier, and a present of a pair of socks still further 
enhanced his pleasure. His companions were also similarly favored, and 
testified their appreciation of the gift by endeavoring to purchase the balance 
of Morford's stock. He would not sell, however, as he wished to send them 
to his brother at Richmond, by a person who had given public notice that he 
was soon going there. A fourth drink made all supremely happy ; at which 
juncture their prisoner asked permission to go to a friend's house, only a 
quarter of a mile off, and stay until morning, when he would go with them 
to Murfreesborough. His friend of the horse-trade, now very mellow, 
thought he need not go to Murfreesborough at all, and said he would see 
what the others said about it. Finally, it was concluded that he was 
"right," and might; whereupon he mounted the skeleton mare and rode 
rejoicingly into Nashville. 

On his next trip southward he was arrested by Colonel John T. Morgan, just 
as he came out of the Federal lines, and, as his only resort, joined Forrest's 
command, and was furnished with a horse and gun. The next day Forrest 
made a speech to his men, and told them that they were now going to capture 
Nashville. The column immediately began its march, and Morford, by 
some means, managed to have himself placed in the advance. Two milea 
below Lavergne a halt for the night was made ; but Morford's horse was 
unruly, and could not be stopped, carrying its rider ahead and out of sight. 
It is needless to say that this obstinacy was not overcome until Nashville 
was reached, nor that when Forrest came, the next day, General Negley waa 
amply prepared for him. 

At this time Nashville was invested. Buell was known to be advancing 
towards the city, but no scouts had been able to go to or come from him. A 
handsome reward was offered to any one who would carry a despatch safely 
through to Bowling Green, and Morford undertook to do it. Putting the 
document under the lining of his boot, he started for Gallatin, where he 
arrived safely. 

For some hours he sauntered around the place, lounged in and out of bar- 
rooms, made friends with the rebel soldiers, and, towards evening, purchased 
a small bag of corn-meal, a bottle of whiskey, a pound or two of salt, and 



592 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

some smaller articles, -which he threw across his shoulder and started up the 
Louisville road, with hat on one side, hair in admirable disorder, and, 
apparently, gloriously drunk. The pickets jested at and made sport of 
him, but permitted him to pass. The meal, &c. was carried six miles, when 
he suddenly became sober, dropped it, and hastened on to Bowling Green, 
and there met General Rosecrans, who had just arrived. His information 
was very valuable. Here he remained until the army came up and passed 
on, and then set out on his return on foot, as he had come. He supposed that 
our forces had gone by way of Gallatin, but when near that place learned 
that it was still in possession of the rebels, and so stopped for the night in a 
shanty between Morgan's pickets, on the north side, and Woolford's (Union), 
on the south side. During the night the two had a fight, which finally cen- 
tred around the shanty, and resulted in driving Morford to the woods. In 
two or three hours he came back for his clothes, and found that the contend- 
ing parties had disappeared, and that the railroad-tunnels had been, filled 
with wood and fired. Hastily gathering his efiects together, he n.ade his 
way to Tyree Springs, and thence to Nashville. 

For a short time he acted as a detective of the Army Police at Nashville, 
assuming the character of a rebel soldier, and living in the families of 
prominent secessionists. In this work he was very successful ; but it had too 
little of danger and adventure, and he returned again to scouting, making 
several trips southward, sometimes without trouble, but once or twice being 
arrested and escaping as best he could. In these expeditions he visited 
JIcMinnville, Murfreesborough, Altamont, on the Cumberland Mountains, 
Bridgeport, Chattanooga, and other places of smaller note. He travelled 
usually in the guise of a smuggler, actually obtaining orders for goods from 
prominent rebels, and sometimes the money in advance, filling them in 
Nashville and delivering the articles upon his next trip. Just before the 
battle of Stone River he received a large order to be filled for the rebel 
hospitals, went to Nashville, procured the medicine, and returned to McMinn- 
ville, when he delivered some of it. Thence he travelled to Bradyville, and 
thence to Murfreesborough, arriving there just as the battle began. Pre- 
senting some of the surgeons with a supply of morphine, he assisted them 
in attending the wounded for a day or two, and then went to a hospital tent 
in the woods near the railroad, where he also remained one day and part of 
another. The fight was now getting hot, and, fearful that somebody would 
recognize him, he left Murfreesborough on Friday, and went to McMinnvillo. 
He had been there but little more than an hour, having barely time to put 
up his horse and step into a house near by to see some wounded men, when 
two soldiers arrived in search of him. Their description of him was perfect ; 
but he escaped by being out of sight, — the friend with whom he was sup- 
posed to be declaring, though closely questioned, that he had not seen and 
knew nothing of him. In a few minutes pickets were thrown out around 
the town, and it was two days before he could get away. Obtaining a pass 
to Chattanooga at last, only through the influence of a lady acquaintance, 



MORFORD, THE DARING SPY. 593 

with it he passed the guards, but, when once out of sight, turned off from 
the Chatlauooga road and made his way safely to Nashville. 

General Rosecrans was now in possession of Murfreesborough, and thithei' 
Morford proceeded with some smuggler's goods, with a view to another trip. 
The necessary permission was readily obtained, and he set out for AYoodbury. 
Leaving his wagon outside the rebel lines, he proceeded on foot to MciMinnville, 
arriving there on the 19th of January last, and finding General John 11. 
Morgan, to whom he represented himself as a former resident in the vicinity 
of Woodbury ; his family, however, had moved away, and he would like per- 
mission to take his wagon and bring away the household goods. This was 
granted, and the wagon brought to McMiunville, whence Morf)rd went to 
Chattanooga, representing himself along the road as a fugitive from the 
Yankees. Near Chattanooga he began selling his goods to Unionists and 
rebels alike, at enormous prices, and soon closed them out at a profit of from 
four hundi'ed to five hundred dollars. At Chattanooga he remained a few 
days, obtained all the information he could, and returned to Murfreesborough 
without trouble. 

His next and last trip is the most interesting and daring of all his adven- 
tures. Making a few days' stay in Murfreesborough, he went to McMinn- 
ville, and remained there several days, during which time he burned Hickory 
Creek Bridge, and sent a report of it to General Rosecrans. This ho man- 
aged with so much secrecy and skill as to escape all suspicion of complicity 
in the work, mingling freely with the citizens and talking the matter over 
in all its phases. From MciMinnville Morford proceeded to Chattanooga, 
and remained there nearly a week, when he learned that three of our scouts 
were imprisoned in the Hamilton county jail, at Harrison, Tennessee, and 
were to be shot on the first Friday in May. Determined to attempt their 
rescue, he sent a Union man to the town to ascertain who Avas jailer, what 
the number of the guards, how they were placed, and inquire into the 
condition of things in general about the jail. Upon receipt of his report, 
Morford gathered about him nine Union men, on the night of Tuesday, April 
21, and started for Harrison. Before reaching the place, however, they 
heard rumors that the guard had been greatly strengthened ; and, fearful 
that it would prove too powerful for them, the party retreated to the moun- 
tains on the north side of the Tennessee River, where they remained con- 
cealed until Thursday night. On Wednesday night the same man who had 
previously gone to the town was again sent to reconnoitre the position. 
Thursday morning he returned and said that the story of a strong guard wa» 
all fiilse: there were but two in addition to the jaiJer. 

Morford's party was now reduced to six, including himself; but he resolved 
to make the attempt that night. Late in the afternoon all went down to the 
river and loitered around until dark, when they procured boats aud crossed 
to the opposite bank. Taking the Chattanooga and Harrison road, they 
entered the town, looked around at leisure, saw no soldiers nor any thin- 
unusual, and proceeded towards the jail. Approaching quite near, they threw 
themselves upon the ground and surveyed the premises carefully. The jail 

as 



594 ARMY POLICE RECORD, 

■vraa surrounded by a high board fence, in which -w^ere two gates. Morford'fl 
plan of operations was quickly arranged. Making a prisoner of one of his 
own men, he entered the enclosure, posting a sentinel at each gate. Once 
inside, a light was visible in the jail, and Morford marched confidently up to 
the door and rapped. The jailer thrust his head out of a windoAv and asked 
what was wanted. He was told, "Here is a prisoner to put in the jail." 
Apparently satisfied, the jailer soon opened the door and admitted the twain 
into the entry. In a moment, however, he became alarmed, and, hastily 
exclaiming, " Hold on !" stepped out. 

For ten minutes Morford waited patiently for his return, supposing, of 
course, that he could not escape from the yard, both gates being guarded. 
Not making his appearance, it was found that the pickets had allowed him to 
pass them. This rather alarming fact made haste necessary, and Morford, 
returning to the jail, said he must put his prisoner in immediately, and 
demanded the keys forthwith. The women declared in positive terms that 
they hadn't them, and did not know where they were. One of the guards 
was discovered in bed and told to get the keys. Proving rather noisy and 
saucy, he was reminded that he might get his head taken off if he were not 
quiet, — which intimation effectually silenced him. Morford again demanded 
the keys, and the women, somewhat frightened, gave him the key to the 
outside door. Unlocking it, and lighting up the place with candles, he 
found himself in a room around the sides of which was ranged a line of 
wrought-iron cages. In one of these were five persons, four white and one 
negro. Carrying out the character he had assumed of a rebel soldier in 
charge of a prisoner, Morford talked harshly enough to the caged men, 
and threatened to hang them at once, at which they were very naturally 
alarmed, and began to beg for mercy. For a third time the keys to the inner 
room, in which the scouts were, were demanded, and a third time the women 
denied having them. An axe was then ordered to be brought, but there was 
none about the place: so said they. Morford saw that they were trifling 
with him, and determined to stop it. Snatching one of the jailer's boys stand- 
ing near by the collar, and drawing his sabre, he told him he would cut his 
head off if he did not bring him an axe in two minutes. This had the 
desired effect, and the axe was forthcoming. 

Morford now began cutting away at the lock, when he was startled by 
hearing the word " halt I" at the gate. Of his five men two were at the gates, 
two were inside as a guard, and one was holding the light. Ready for a fight, 
he went out to see what was the matter. The sentinel reporting that he had 
halted an armed man outside, Morford walked out to him and demanded, — 

"What are you doing here with that gun?" 

" Miss Laura said you were breaking down the jail, and I want to see 
McAllister, the jailer. Where is he?" was the reply. 

"Well, suppose I am breaking down the jail: what are you going to do 
about it?" 

" I am going to stop it if I can." 

" What's your name ?" 



MORFORD, THE DARING SPY. 595 

" Lowry Johnson." 

By this time Morford had grasped the muzzle of the gun, and told him to 
let go. Instead of complying, Johnson tried to pull it away; but a blow 
upon the neck from Morford's sabre soon made him drop it. Morford now 
began to search him for other weapons, but before he had couchided the 
operation Johnson broke away, leaving a part of his clothing in Morford's 
hands. The latter drew his revolver and pursued, firing five shots at him, 
sometimes at a distance of only six or eight paces. A cry, as of pain, 
showed that he was struck, but he managed to reach the hotel (kept by his 
brother), and, bursting in the door, which was fastened, escaped into the 
house. Morford followed, but too late. Johnson's brother now came out 
and rang the bell in front, which gathered a crowd about the door; but 
Morford, not at all daunted, told them that if they wanted to guard the jail 
they had better be about it quick, as he was going to burn it and the town 
in the bargain. This so frightened them that no further demonstration was 
made, and Morford returned to the jail unmolested. There he and his men 
made so much shouting and hurrahing as to frighten the people of the town 
beyond measure ; and many lights from upper-story windows were extin- 
guished, and the streets were deserted. 

A half-hour's work was necessary to break off the outside lock, — a splendid 
burglar-proof one. Morford now discovered that the door was double, and 
that the inner one was made still more secure by being barred with three 
heavy log-chains. These were cut in two with the axe ; but the strong lock 
of the door still remained. He again demanded the key, and told the women 
if it was not produced he would murder the whole of them. The rebel guard, 
Lew. Luttrell by name, was still in bed. Rising up, he said that the key 
was not there. Morford now ordered Luttrell to get out of bed, in a tone 
so authoritative that that individual deemed it advisable to comply. Scarcely 
was he out, however, before Morford struck at him with his sabre ; but he 
was too far off, and the blow fell upon one of the children, drawing some 
blood. This frightened the women, and, concluding that he was about to 
put his threat in execution and would murder them surely enough, they 
produced the key without further words. No time was lost in unlocking the 
door and releasing the inmates of the room. Procuring their clothes for 
them and arming one with Johnson's gun, the whole party left the jail and 
hurried towards the river. Among the released prisoners was a rebel with a 
wooden leg, the original having been shot off at Manassas. He persisted in 
accompanying the others, and was only induced to go back by the intimation 
that " dead men tell no tales." 

Crossing the river in the boats, they were moved to another place at some 
distance, to preclude the possibility of being tracked and followed. All 
now hid themselves among the mountains, and the same Union man was 
again sent to Harrison, this time to see how severely Johnson was wounded. 
He returned in a day or two, and reported that he had a severe sabre- cut on 
the shoulder, a bullet through the muscle of his right arm, and two slight 
wounds in one of his hands. Morford and his men remained in the moun- 



596 ARMY rOLICE RECORD. 

tains u;itil all search for the prisoners Tvas over, then went to the Cumberland 
Mountains, where they remained one day and a portion of another, and then 
proceeded in the direction of McMinnville. Hiding themselves in the woods 
near this place during the day, seeing but not seen, they travelled that night 
to within eleven miles of Woodbury, when they struck across the road 
from McMinnville to Woodbury. Near Logan's Plains they were fired on 
by a body of rebel cavalry, but, though some forty shots were fired, no one 
of the ten was harmed, Morford having one buUet^hole in his coat. The 
cavalry, however, pursued them across the barrens, surrounded them, and 
supposed themselves sure of their game ; but Morford and his companions 
scattered and hid away, not one being captured or found. Night coming on, 
the cavalry gave up the chase, and went on to Woodbury, where they threw 
out pickets, not doubting that they would pick up the objects of their 
search during the night. Morford, however, was informed of this fact by a 
citizen, and, in consequence, lay concealed all the next day, making his way 
safely to Murfreesborough, with all of his company, the day after. 



Praudulent Transfer of Eebel Goods. 

On the 10th of December, 18C2, the Chief of Police of the Army of the 
Cumberland seized the large wholesale store and stock of goods of Morgan & 
Co., a noted dry-goods house at Nashville, Tennessee, previous to the breaking 
out of the rebellion. When war convulsed that section of country, the stoi'e 
was closed, and upon the occupancy of Nashville by the Union troops, after 
the fall of Fort Donelson, Samuel D. Morgan went South with the rebel 
army, with which he was identified as a contractor, as a manufacturer of 
percussion-caps, and as a very wealthy, ardent, Southeru secessionist. After 
the store had been closed several months, it suddenly was made known that 
this stock of goods, $26,000 in value, had been sold to Messrs. Moore & Kyle, 
who were formerly clerk and book-keeper, respectively, in the same store, — 
who were notoriously young men of no capital, and were not known aa 
Union men in that community. The facts we glean from the papers in the 
case to be as follows : — 

This stock of goods was the property of Samuel D. Moi-gan and Charles 
J. Cheney, partners, doing business under the style of Morgan & Co. At 
the breaking-out of the rebellion, and before the State of Tennessee seceded, 
Samuel D. Morgan, a zealous rebel sympathizer, started a factory for the 
maiiufacture of percussion-caps. He was chairman of an ordnance bureau. 
He applied to Andrew Anderson, a foundryman and machinist in Nashville, 
to make machines for making the caps, and on his refusal called him a 
Union man, and threatened to have his property seized by the authorities 
if he refused to make them. Upon this Anderson made the machines, 



FEAUDULENT TRANSFER OF REBEL GOODS. 597 

and Morgan took from him his foreman, Horatio North, to superintend the 
manufacture of the percussion-caps. He manufactured about one million 
caps per week, and shipped them to Richmond, Mobile, New Orleans, &c. 
On the fall of Fort Donelson, Morgan fled with the Southern army. On the 
secession of the State, Morgan turned the factory over to the Confederate 
authorities, and he has never returned since. 

This stock of goods remained in store until the summer of 18G2, when 
said Cheney, who is Morgan's son-in-law, executed a sale of it to John F 
Moore and James Kyle. It is not pretended that either of these persons 
had any means. Moore had been a clerk in the house of Morgan & Co. 
and Kyle had also been a clerk. Moore is shown to have been a secession 
sympathizer ; nothing is stated as to Kyle's political views. To these per- 
sons the stock was sold for the sum of $26,000 (it is stated that the stock is 
of far greater value), on a credit, their notes being taken for $2000 each, 
payable to Morgan & Co. every three months, making a time-sale running 
through thirty-nine mouths. It is stated that the firm of Morgan & Co., 
owed a heavy debt in New York and other Eastern cities of from $25,000 
to $30,000, and that it was their intention to pay this indebtedness, and 
that it was the desire of Mr. Cheney to apply the amounts of these notes in 
liquidation of this debt. 

Mr. Cheney states the indebtedness due the firm of Morgan & Co. at 
$300,000 ; that the notes of Moore & Kyle, together with all the notes due 
the firm, were sent by him to Mr. Morgan, then in Middle Alabama, in 
September last. 

It appears from the statement of Mr. Moore that the amount of the first 
note has been fully paid in supplying the families of Morgan and Cheney, 
still in the city of Nashville, with necessaries. 

It is stated by Mr. Cheney, and by other testimony, that the stock of 
goods was four-fifths Morgan's and one-fifth his ; that the store was closed 
from the time of the taking of Fort Donelson, February, 1862, until the sale 
in the same summer, because licenses were required. It appears that the 
requirement for a license was the oath of allegiance ; but no effort appears 
to have been made by Mr. Cheney to obtain a license, although, as he states, 
the goods were damaging. It further appears that on the sale to Moore 
& Kyle they obtained license by taking the oath of allegiance. 

Moore & Kyle state that if the seizure of these goods be preparatory to 
the confiscation thereof as the property of Morgan, it is inflicting a severe 
and disastrous blow upon them ; that they owe the notes, but, if the goods 
are taken, have no means of payment ; that if the object were to reach the 
property of Morgan, they suggest that the notes should have been seized; 
that the transfer to them was a honajide transaction ; that, at any rate, it is 
a proper case for civil, not military, proceeding, and that they suggest the 
propriety of seizing, by process in the ^ature of attachment or injunction 
their indebtedness to Morgan & Co.; and that they have acted in perfect 
good faith in this transaction throughout. 

The foregoing is the substance of the evidence in this case, though it is 
I 



598 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

hoped thttt the evidence of Mr. Joseph Clark, of Liberty, De Kalb county,. 
Tennessee, can be obtained. 

The facts show, — 

1st. That this stock was owned by parties hostile to the Union and sympa- 
thizing with rebellion ; one of the parties being in active hostility, not as 
an individual merely, but with a wide-spread influence as a man, and render- 
ing assistance to the rebellion of the utmost importance as a manufacturer. 

2d. That Morgan, whose only two sons are, or were, in the rebel army, 
fled with the Southern army as a rebel, and engaged in rebellion, leaving 
his property and goods ; and that Mr. Cheney, from his own statements, 
though not an active participator, was and is a rebel sympathizer to such 
an extent that he either did not dare to take steps to procure license for the 
sale of the stock, or did not choose to. 

3d. That from these facts alone it would appear that, so far as Morgan was 
concerned, he fled, leaving these goods because he had not time to make a 
proper disposition of them ; that they remained as Ifiwful prize to the army 
of the United States ; that, by the very nature of the transaction, the title 
became vested in the United States as a military capture, — not as goods sub- 
ject to confiscation.. 

4th. The sale to Moore & Kyle seems to have been only a sham. Morgan 
has with him in the South, sent there in September last by Mr. Cheney, the 
substance of the concern,^ — $300,000 of evidences of debt due the house, and 
the notes of Moore & Kyle. It is not presumable that men engaged as he 
and Cheney should be willing, upon the policy of the South, to pay Northern 
debts ; to the contrary of the assertion of Mr. Cheney to that effect, the 
proceeds of ihe sale of these goods have so far been applied to the support 
of the families of Morgan and Cheney. 

In case this stock of goods is not to be looked upon as a military capture, 
it was respectfully recommended by the provost judge that they be turned 
over to the United States Marshal for libel and confiscation. 

This latter recommendation was approved by the general commanding, 
and the case is now before the United States District Court, to be heard at 
its next sitting at Nashville. Of course good Union lawyers will be feed to 
prevent the confiscation of these goods if possible. But the case is a plain 
one, from the above showing. At all events, this chapter is worthy of perusal, 
as representative of the multitude of cases of confiscation that will flood 
upon the country upon the close of the war. 



MRS. Y- 



S BOOTS AND DKY-GOODS. 



Mrs. Y 's Boots and Dry-Goods. 



599 




About the 15th of December, 1862, while the Army of the Cumberland 
was occupying the city of Nashville, Tennessee, the rebel army being but 
thirty-two miles south, at Murfreesborough, and smuggling and spying at 
full tide, the following important and amusing case occurred. 

A Mrs. Y entered the house of a neighbor in that city at the time 

above mentioned, both being Southern synipathi-zers, and spoke of her in- 
tention to go South soon to her husband ; also, she desired to take with her 
a quantity of clothing for him and other friends in tlie Southern army, 
especially some boots, coats, &c. ; and, furthermore, she had a large lot of 
etore goods, which would pay well, and also greatly aid the cause, if she 
could run them through safely. She said she had recently made a trip to 
the rebfil army, cheating the Yankee authorities badly ; that she took with 
her quite a lot of goods, letters, &c., but that she had no conveyance, and 
was compelled to walk several miles at one time: she now do.^ired to get a 
team to go with, &c. 

There was present at this conversation a man whom the ladies thought ta 
be all right ; and so he really had been. They freely consulted with him, 
be liavina- been at one time in the Southern army. A change, however, had 



600 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

come ore/ this man, and he had silently come to the conclusion that the 

rebellion was wrong and would prove a failure. As soon as Mrs. Y 

departed he also left the house, and ere long the whole matter was known 
to the Chief of the Army Police. 

The man was instructed to aid Mrs. Y in all her movements, but 

was particularly cautioned not to encourage or advise her to do unlawful 
acts. He returned to that house, and soon was assisting her in that spirit 
and intent. She wanted a team: he assisted her in purchasing two mules 
and a double-spring wagon. He procured boxes and bales at her request, 
and helped her to stow away her things in a friendly manner. It seemed 
that her husband or friends had formerly kept a store in Nashville until the 
war set in, when it was closed, and the goods taken to her dwelling and 
there hidden away in back-room, garret, or cellar. 

At length she was ready ; and so was the Chief of Police. Several days 
were required to perfect all her arrangements, down to the final one of get- 
ting her pass to move South with her household goods; for this was her 
pretence, and at that time the general commanding permitted Southern 
sympathizing families to go South. Of course a pass was granted to her. 
The informer often cautioned her as to the risk of detection, and the sure 
c:>nfiscati(in that would follow ; but she was fearless and reckless and 
determined. 

Mrs. Y and party left Nashville one morning in style, as follows : — 

two mules drawing spring wagon, with a black man as driver, and herself 
and her black female servant mounted high upon the load of beds, bales, 
and bundles of what seemed to be common household "plunder." Arriving 
at the outer lines, the wagon was halted and the pass demanded and ex- 
hibited. " All right ; pass on," were the cheerin-/ words of the picket-guard ; 

and Mrs. Y must have breathed much easier as the team started on 

cheerily for the land of Dixie. Her exultation was short lived. Some Federal 
patrols (policemen), whom Colonel Truesdail has constantly on that road, 
were on the alert. The wagon was again halted, the pass exhibited, and then 
the lady, her driver, and the woman-servant Avere invited to dismount, that 

the goods might be examined. Mrs. Y protested, expostulated, and 

stormed ; but it was of no avail ; alight they must. She did so, followed 
by the driver. Her black woman then essayed to get doAvn ; for she was 
fat, old, and clumsy, and had on hoops, and negro-finery of latest pattern. 
When almost down, she gave a jump, and brought up on the ground "all 
standing." Alas for that jump! A string broke from about her waist, and 
down tumbled to the ground from beneath her well-developed hoops two pairs 
of long-Iegyed cavalnj boots. The surprise and mortification of the lady, 
the horror of the dai'kies, and the smiles of the officers and men may well 
be imagined. Our artist has presented the scene on the foregoing page. 

This evidence was sufiicicut to warrant the detention and return to Nash- 
ville of the party. The ]:x)licemen, however, knew their business, and a 
moment's examination of the beds, &c. satisfied them of other mysteries 
packed awaj- in the wagon. The party were at once returned to the city 



MRS. Y 'S BOOTS AND DRY-GOODS. 601 

police office, — the lady in a state of mind more easily imagined than de- 
Bcribed. 

Then occurred another scene, to be witnessed but once in a lifetime, Tho 
wagon-load of bedding was taken into the police office and examined. In 
the midst of feather beds, &c. were found new shoes, boots, balls of ribbon, 
articles of clothing, hoop-skirts, packages of gloves and stockings, bunches 
and spools of thread, whole pieces of lace and edging, dress-patterns of 
various hue and texture, entire pieces of domestic and muslins, — in short, 
the remnant of a considerable stock from a city dry-goods store, which would 

have been worth to Mrs. Y , once safely in rebeldom, five hundred 

per cent, more than the original cost, and which she counted good to her for 
eighteen thousand dollars. 

As the negro servants and orderlies worked away in uncovering and dis- 
embowelling the goods, the large parlor of the noted Zollicoffer mansion, 
where the army police office has been located for several months, presented 
a singular appearance. A pile of goods was made in the middle of the floor 
like a pyramid, reaching above the centre-table. The atmosphere was thick 
with downy feathers which came out with the goods. Around the room 
were standing crowds of officers from head-quarters, who had heard of the 
event and come over to witness the developments. At one time the general 
commanding was an interested witness. The facts were noised about the 
neighborhood, and for some time afterwards the police office was a " curiosity- 
shop" of the highest pretension. 

Upon the person of Mrs. Y were also found some eight hundred 

dollars in money, a gold watch, &c., which were retained for the time, and 
she was permitted to go to her home. The case was reported to head-quarters ; 
and orders were thereupon issued that her store-goods and team, and five 
hundred dollars of her money, be turned over to the.United States Govern- 
ment as subject to confiscation, and that she be sent south of our lines, with 
her household goods proper, clothing, &c., with strict command that she 
return to the North no more during the war. 

The following letter was found upon Mrs. Y 's driver, and contains 

some interesting items :— 

"Nashville, December 17, 1862. 

<'Ira p. Jones, Esq., Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

"Dear Sir:— It is now nine o'clock at night, and, feeling quite lonely, my 
mind runs back to pleasant hours that I have spent with you, your dear 
wife, and sweet little darlings, and, thinking a word from me would be ex- 
ceptable to you, I will write a line informing you of our good health. I say 
our,— and mean sister, the black ones, and I; for these compose my family. 
Since you left here we have all had fine health; and well that it is so, for 
we have had but little else to cheer us ; but I have as little to complain of as 
any one, for as yet not one tree, bush, or shrub has been destroyed inside of 
my home place. I hope it may continue so. Your home is in like condition 
Soon after you left, I got a man to go in the house, and he is still there. I 



602 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

have clai.ued the pi-operty ; and so far all is well taken care of. We have 
a hard vva^ of getting on uuw: every thing is high and scarce ; and I suppose 
it will be so while the war continues. Do yuu see any thiug bright or hope- 
ful in the future ? Oh, I wish it was stopped ! but God only knows when it 
will cease. I think it very doubtful whether you get this note or not: if you 
do, please write to me, for I would be glad to hear from you and any of 
the children, Mr. Armstrong and family are all well. My servants are all 
with me yet, but I am looking for an outbreak with them. The men have 
been working on fortifications nearly all the summer. They are quite free ; 
but still they are home. The servants are ruining ! our country is ruining ! 
all, all are ruining! Please write if you can. 

"I am, as ever, yours, 

" I P ." 



The Case of Mrs. Molly Hyde. 

In April last, Mrs. Hyde, of Nashville, a young, ardent, handsome, and 
smart rebel lady, mother of two children, and whose husband was in the 
rebel army, was arrested within our lines as a spy and a dangerous political 
character. Also her sister, Mrs. Payne, likewise a resident of Nashville, 
was subsequently arrested as connected with, aiding, and abetting her. 

A detective policeman, whose roh was to get into the confidence of notable 
secessionists, had become acquainted with the lady and all her ways. He 
reported to Colonel Truesdail, and at the proper time the arrest was made. 
We will call the detective by the name of Randolph, and let him tell the 
story. We only publish two statements made after her arrest, as they give 
a fair insight into the case, — one of them made by her to her cotijldential 
friend, as she supposed, and the other an open, defiant confession, made to 
the police-officer who had her in charge. Says Randolph, — 

" Mrs. Molly Hyde has told me that when she was last at General Morgan's 
head-quarters she gave Harry Morgan a fine horse ; that she paid eight 
hundred dollars for him ; that Harry Morgan was a cousin of John Morgan ; 
that she was glad that she did it, for the Yankees would have got him if she 
had delayed it any longer, and that she would i-ather see the horse shot than 
to see them get him ; that he was in good hands now ; and that if she ever 
needed a horse she could get as many as she wanted of Morgan. 

"She told me that she wanted to be sent South. She did not care if she 
did have to go by the way of Vicksburg ; she would be at Morgan's head- 
quarters as soon as she could get there, and that would be in two weeks 
after her arrival at that point ; that she regretted nothing that she had done 
for the Confederacy, for her whole heart was with the South, and she would 
remain as true as steel. 



THE CASE OF MRS. MOLLY HYDE. 603 

" The (inly thing that she was sorry for was that she had taken the oath 
of allegiance to the United States Government. She wished she could have 
an opportunity to scratch her name from that paper : she regretted it more 
than any act of her life ; but, said she, 

" 'If ever I get my liberty, the oath won't stop me. No, sir! Not until 
every one of old Truesdail's devils is caught and hung. I would rather 
Morgan would catch him than any other man in the world. He has had a 
man on my track ever since I took the oath. If he had not known that I 
went to the Southern army, he would not have stopped my letters at the 
Nashville post-office. I wish he was hung for that ! I have sent word to 
every one of my friends that I could, not to write to me through the post- 
office any more, for if they did I would not get them. 

" ' I think that old Church Hooper has told something on me that makes 
Truesdail or some of the Yankees watch me so, — and Clay Drake too. He 
offered me five hundred dollars to get him released from the conscript that 
was on him. I would not get him released for one thousand dollars : they 
will shoot him if they ever get him,' &c. &c. 

" She then repeated, — 

" ' I wish they would send me South ; but I will not let them know that I 
want to go there, for if I do they will be sure to send me North. I am 
going to tell them that I am not at all particular where I go, they may do 

just as they please with me. But I tell you, Mr. , if I do go to the 

Alton or Camp Chase prison, I want you to come and see me and help me 
out.' 

" ' That will be a very difficult task to undertake,' I remarked. 

" ' I know that,' she replied, ' but where there is a will there is a way ; 
and if you want money to do it with, my friends will furnish all your wants, 
and you can do it easy enough. These Yankee officers are easy enough 
bribed : you know that yourself, for you was one yourself once, or thought 
you were as good as any of them, and 7iow see 7iow you feel towards the wJiole 
Lincoln tribe. I am glad that you are now going to do something for people 
that can appreciate your services and not treat you like a dog.' 

" Mrs. Molly Hyde stated to me yesterday — my last interview with lier — 
that Captain Dick Gladden, who was discharged from the 1st Middle Ten- 
nessee Infantry, — Union, — was now an officer in the Confederate army ; that 
he went from here to Columbia, Tennessee, with a man from Edgefield by 
the name of Madison Stratton, who was held in hostage for D. D. Dickey, 
when the Confederates had him ; that Gladden had recognized several men 
from Nashville from Yankee regiments, who were supposed to be spies, five 
of whom were hung. She saw the execution take place, and expressed much 
regret that there had not been twice as many. She saw Gladden at TuUa- 
homa, about eight days before her arrest. Mrs. Hyde said she carried very 
important papers and information to Generals Wheeler and Van Dorn, which 
officers made a great ado over her upon her arrival. She said she bribed 
the Federal pickets on her return home with apples, cakes, and caudy, 



604 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

which she obtained of her aunt, Tvho lives near Columbia. I did not learn 
the name of her aunt and uncle." 

Tlie foregoing is the substance of Mrs. Hyde's revelations to the de- 
tective. She prevailed upon Randolph to go and see a Federal officer and 
get assistance from that quarter. He did so, — with the following result, says 
Randolph : — 

"During an interview with Captain , of the Ohio cavalry, he stated to 

me all of the friendly relations that existed between himself and Mrs. Hyde 
and Mrs. Payne. He said he had known them for some time, and that they 
had been very kind to him in several instances. When he was sick they 
visited him, and brought all sorts of delicacies to him, and nursed him as 
kindly as his own mother couhl have done. ' And now, Randolph,' said 
he, ' I cannot forget such kindness. I do not want to do any thing that 
will criminate me. I am in the Government service ; but I will exert myself 
to any honorable extent to relieve them from their present confinement.' 
We talked of every plan by which their release could be effected. The 
captain's opinion was that the best thing thoy could do would be to go 
before the military authorities and acknowledge they had done wrong, and 
that they had been influenced to do as they had by those who had pretended 
to be their friends, but in whom they had lost all confidence, and that they, 
were now willing to abide by the laws of the Federal Government while 
they occupied this country. If this policy did not gain them their liberty, 
it would have a very good influence upon the general commanding the post, 
also with General Rosecrans, &c. &c." 

Thus the reader will perceive the craft and deceit of these secession 
females, in paying ladylike attentions to Federal officers, to gain favors and 
protection, while in their hearts are only hatred and curses. In this case 
we are pleased to see that the officer properly remembered their kind- 
ness to him in sickness, but was true to his flag. Finding all hopes of 
release vain, Mrs. Hyde puts on a bold air of defiance, and reveals her 
doings to the police-officer at the hotel who has her in charge. We will also 
let him tell his part of the story : — 

" Mrs. Hyde told me, in a conversation I had with her alone at the City 
Hotel, in Nashville, on May 1, 1863, that she had been doing an immense 
deal of service for the rebel Government for the last twenty months, — had 
heen all through Southern Kentucky, in fact, all over the State. Near Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, she bought the fine blooded mare that John H. Morgan 
now rides. She presented it to said Morgan ; and it is the same one which 
he rode when he made his escape from the Federals at McMinnville about 
one week ago. She further said she was in McMinnville last winter ; she 
was then employed by said John H. Morgan in obtaining information for 
him of all that would be of any advantage to him, of the movements of the 
enemy, or of their whereabouts, &c, 

" In presenting the mare to Morgan, she told him the mare had done her 
good service : ' Take her, and do all the good you can with her for our 
cause.' She further told me she made a trip for Bragg into East Tennessee 



THE ADVENTURES OF TTVO UXIOX SPIES. 605 

last winter to gather all the infonnation she could in regard to who were 
in sympathy with the Lincoln Government, and to ferret out the bridge- 
burners in that region. She also said she was in Middleton last winter 
when Majur Mint Douglas and his men were captured by the Federals, — 
said she saw the whole of it. She then came to Murfreesborough, and 
stopped at the house of Mrs. Davis. 

" On the same night Mrs. Story, of Shelbyville, came and stayed at the 
said Mrs. Davis's. Said she slept with a lady at Mrs. Davis's, but did 
not tell me her name. Her object in coming to Murfreesborough was to 
get all the information of the movement of the Federal troops and of 
their strength, — in fact, she said, all that would be of any value to the 
Confederate forces. Said she had for the last twenty months out- 
generalled the Yankees, but they had at last beat her, and she was 
resigned to her fate, be it what it might. Said she had done nothing 
she was sorry for, and would do the same again if she could get the 
chance ; said it was not the amount of money she was to receive for her 
labor, but it was done for the good of the rebel cause. Said her sister 
knew nothing of her secrets. She did most of her travelling by night. 
Said she had furnished rebel generals with important information, and a 
large amount of it. 

" The circumstances under which I obtained this information from ^Irs. 
Hyde were as follows : — I was in charge of Mrs. Hyde and 3Irs. Payne at 
the City Hotel, to see that they were well provided for ; and, after she 
thought that the Federals knew all she had done, she told me that it would 
not make her case any worse, and she gave me this history of her own 
accord. I did not seek it : she told me of her own free will. I carefully 
avoided asking her any questions, but treated her with due deference and 
kindness." 

It appears from the evidence that Mrs. Molly Hyde was the travelling 
member of the firm of spies, while her sister, Mrs. Payne, collected the 
news and letters, and superintended generally the Xashville terminus of 
their grape-vine line of communication. We have given enough of the 
evidence, from the great mass before us, to properly illustrate the case, 
and will bid adieu to the ladies in question, one of whom was ordered 
to be sent North, to remain until after the war. Mrs. Hyde is now an 
occupant of the Alton (Illinois) military prison. 



The AdventnTes of Two Union Spies. 

The following statement of two young members of the army police is 
strictly reliable, and will amply repay a perusal. 

" ok the 15th of April, 1863, we were sent from XashviUe by Colonel 
Truesdail, Chief of the Police and Scout service, to gather knowledge of 



606 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

parties engaged in smuggling goods through the lines, and to gain all in- 
formation possible as to the strength and position of the enemy's forces. 
Assuming the character of deserters from the Federal army, vre started out, 
and arrived at the house of one Thomas Hooper, below Sam's Creek, twenty 
miles from Nashville, on the 17th instant, at evening. We remained at his 
house one day, and found that the suspicion that was resting on Hooper of 
being a rebel had no foundation : he was very poor, scarcely able to obtain 
food for his family. During conversation with Hooper we learned that one 
Rook, who was a neighbor to Hooper, had a boat which he used to convey 
deserters and others across the river. On drawing near to Rook's house 
we saw two horses, apparently belonging to two rebel cavalrymen, standing 
at the door. After a short time, Rook, with tvro rebel officers, came out of 
the house and proceeded to the boat and crossed the river. After a consider- 
able lapse of time they returned, and, on their coming up tlie bank of the 
river, we, being in a clump of bushes, heard them say that they had suc- 
ceeded in seeing and learning all they wished ; that, as the Federals had 
cavalry all along that road, they would take the south side of the river to 
march on Nashville, which was Van Dorn's plan. Cajataln Eastham, who 
was one of the officers, stated that he had been to our picket-line, and he 
was sure they could march into Nashville and destroy all the Government 
stores and take the place, and in two or three weeks he would be In his 
native city. He further stated that the business of Lieutenant King and 
himself was to find the strength and distribution of the forces in and about 
Nashville. We heard Rook tell Lieutenant King that he (Rook) had re- 
ceived some articles direct from Nashville which he wanted Lieutenant 
King to take with him. The parties then moved up towards Rook's house. 
We fell back to the woods and came upon a blind road, sufficiently wide 
to move a large body of troops and yet be under cover from the river, — 
leaving a road unguarded by our pickets on which the enemy can move to 
a point within six miles of Nashville. Proceeding on our way up this 
road, we met many scouts of the enemy passing In every direction, closely 
watching all the by-paths. On the next morning, in endeavoring to cross 
the river we were captured by a squad of rebel cavalry, who mounted us on 
mules, and we were taken to Spring Hill, to Van Dorn's head-quarters, — they 
stating that we would be paroled and sent back home. From our guard on 
the way we learned that General Van Dorn would soon march over the road 
before mentioned to Nashville. On arriving at Van Dorn's head-quarters 
we were immediately questioned as to the strength of Federal forces and 
the fortifications about Nashville. We stated that we knew nothing, as our 
regiment was stationed near Murfreesborough. We were questioned very 
closely, but gave them no Information. Wc were held at Spring Hill but 
two or three hours, when we were sent on to Columbia, where we were to 
be paroled. 

" We arrived at Columbia and were there paroled, but, at the suggestion of 
one of the officers, were placed In prison to await the order of General Bragg. 
There was no force at Columbia but a small provost-guard. Provisions 



THE ADVENTURES OF TWO UNION SPIES. 607 

were very scarce, half-rations only being issued. Rations consisted of corn- 
meal and bacon. There were no fortifications of account,— some small 
breastworks and rifle-pits. On the 23d, General Forrest with his command 
passed through Columbia, taking most of the stores in the commissary de- 
partment: their destination, we learned, was the Tennessee River. The 
men were all well mounted. In conversation with imprisoned conscripts 
we gleaned that the farmers were all discouraged about the coming crop ; 
that unless the war was soon closed they would starve, for the draft on 
them for food was so heavy and frequent that they had barely enough to 
live upon. The coming crop will be very small. The prison was filled with 
deserters and conscripts. The prisoners stated that they were tired and dis- 
couraged, and they would all leave if it were not for the tyranny exercised 
over them. We had a conversation with one "Wiley George, who was a leader 
in the burning of the bridge over Duck River ; Wm. Sander assisted in the 
work. The talk of the prisoners was in favor of the Union,— many stating 
that they had been deceived. We miet one Killdare, who stated that he 
had brought out of Nashville seven hundred dollars' worth of goods. He 
said his three girls would come to the city and carry them to him, and he 
would bring them to the rebel lines. We were taken from prison and 
marched to Shelbyville, where we arrived the 5th of May. We saw their 
batteries within six miles of Shelbyville, — one brigade of infantry and one 
9f cavalry lying on the pike. The fortifications extended one and a half 
miles in length. There is stationed there one brigade of infantry. General 
Cheatham commands the post. The prisons there are full of deserters and 
conscripts, who are dissatisfied and who were poorly fed and clothed. Many 
stated that they did not wish to fight longer, — that they were compelled to do 
so, as Bragg was having all deserters shot. We had a little corn-meal and a 
little bacon for our rations. The whole country, citizens and soldiers, are on 
half-allowance. Flour was selling at eighty dollars per barrel, corn five 
dollars per bushel, bacon one dollar and a half per pound. Little of the 
country we passed through was cultivated. The wheat-fields are badly 
afiected with the rust. We were then sent on to Tullahoma by railroad, 
where Generals Bragg and Johnston had their head-quarters, but learned 
that they would soon move to Shelbyville. All goods are enormously high ; 
food very scarce. Morgan's and McCown'a forces were reported to hold 
themselves in readiness to go into Kentucky. We were charged at Tulla- 
homa with being spies ; but, there being no testimony, we were sent to Chat- 
tanooga, where we lay in prison three days. There are but few troops there,— 
perhaps two thousand. The crops are very poor and scant, and all along 
the route we were questioned concerning the police of Nashville, and 
many swore that they would hang every one they captured without a 
trial ; and as for ' old Truesdail,' they wished to have him once in their 
power, and they would teach him what it was to arrest women and chil- 
dren. Some Texas Rangers said that they were watching a chance to shoot 
Generals Rosccrans and Rousseau, and when that was done they could 
manage the rest. 



608 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

"When we arrived at Chattanooga we were put in the guard-house: 
the prison was filled with conscripts. With few exceptions, they were 
in favor of deserting and coming over to the Federal army. Many 
said that they never fired a gun against the Federal army, and never 
would. The Tennesseeans are tired of the war, and if allowed to go home 
would go. 

"We were then ordered to Knoxville, leaving Chattanooga on the 25th 
and arriving at Knoxville the 26th. The line of the railroad is guarded ; 
stockades are being erected, and, where the railroad crosses the Tennessee 
Kiver, fortifications are being made. Here there are three regiments of in- 
fantry and one battery of eight guns stationed. The jail at Knoxville is 
filled to overflowing, prisoners being mostly Union men and Federal ofiicers, — 
the only charges against them being disloyalty to the Southern Confederacy. 
All the way from Knoxville to Richmond, to which place we were carried 
for exchange, provisions are very scarce. Provisions about Knoxville are 
not plenty ; all parties complain of the scarcity. The pedlars along the line 
of railroad would call out, ' Three dollars Confederate for one greenback.' 
We fell in with three men on the cars : they said they were Eastern men, 
and shoemakers by occupation ; they said there were many Union men in the 
city who have the ' Stars and Stripes,' and who were only waiting for an 
opportunity to hoist it as soon as the army made its appearance. They said 
that it would be almost impossible to take Richmond, the fortifications being 
immense, and forts at every available point. At Knoxville we passed one 
company of Indians, whose business was to hunt up Union men in the 
mountains. At Richmond three Merrimacs were building, and one was 
ready for service : the others would not be completed for several months. 
Two were on the stocks, and looked like rough customers. The city was in 
a great fever of excitement consequent upon the raid of General Stoneman ; 
and if General Stoneman had only gone ahead he could have taken Rich- 
mond. At Richmond our prisoners were placed in rooms, so many in one 
room that it was difficult for them to move, and were fed on half-rations, 
and when we were marching through the streets were not allowed the 
privilege of buying any thing to eat. Pedlars were denied the right of com- 
ing into prisons to sell their goods. We learned nothing as to the fortificar 
tions about Richmond in particular. We heard it said that there was 
considerable smuggling going on between Maryland and Virginia. At 
Tullaboma we found Ricketts, a scout sent out from this office, in chains, 
sentenced to be shot as a spy ; another, by name Kelley, was shot there 
some days since as a spy." 



THE MISSES ELLIOTT. 609 



The Misses Elliott. 

OxLY excepting Charleston, perhaps no more determined, fanatical hdy 
rebels can be found than in the city of Nashville. The following is a c5ise 
where two stylish young ladies of that city were dealt with. 

" Office Chief of Army Police, Nashville, May 2, 1863. 
" General : — 

" I herewith submit you the papers in the case of Misses Susie and Mai-y 

Elliott, daughters of Dr. Elliott, a chaplain in the so-called Confederate 

army. These young ladies reside with their mother in this city. Their 

father and two brothers are in the rebel army. They returned to this city 

on Thursday afternoon, contrary to orders (see pass), and were alrested. 

After having their baggage examined (finding amongst it a large number of 

letters to parties residing in this cit}" and elsewhere), they were placed under 

guard. Both and each of them stated that their sympathies were with those 

in rebellion. They are extreme Southern sympathizers. They contomplated 

returning South. AV'heu asked whether they visited the rebel camps, they 

declined answering ; and to all questions relative to the Confederate army 

they refused giving answers. Miss Susie Elliott had a Federal officer's belt 

in her possession, which she stated was worn by a rebel ofacer at the battle 

of Stone River last December. They are young women of education, and, 

judging from their abilities, if allowed to remain in this city are capable 

of doing injury to the cause for which we are so earnestly striving. I 

would especially call your attention to the conditions of the pass on which 

they left this city ; further, to the letter of their father (C. D. Elliott), in 

which he states that his family ' will take no oath and give no parole.' 

The sympathies of the whole family are extremely Southern. 

" I am, general, your obedient servant, 

" William Truesdail, 

" Cliitf of Army Policed' 

The following is a copy of the pass in question : — 

" Head-Quarters, Nashville, March 24, 1803. 

" The guards and pickets will pass Miss Mary and Susan Elliott through 

our lines on the Hardin pike, with carriage, driver, and private baggage, 

not to return without permission from these head-quarters. 

" Good for three days. 

" Robert B. Mitchell, 

^'Brigadier-General commandiny Post." 

One of the Misses Elliott made the following statement, in which the 
other concurred upon being requested to do so, at the army police office at 

Nashville: — 

39 



610 ARMY POLICE RECORD, 

" I am a resident of Nashville. On or about the 23d of March, 1, 
with my sister Mary, obtained, through the influence of our uncle, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel G. F. Elliott, late of the 69th Regiment Ohio Volunteers, 
a pass to go out on the Hardin pike. The said pass -was marked ' good for 
three days,' by special request made by my sister. We went out on the 
Hardin pike on the 26th of March, and proceeded to Shelbyville to see my 
father and brother and to obtain some money. These facts we stated to 
General Mitchell before obtaining our pass. "We arrived at Shelbyville on 
Wednesday evening, April 2, and went to the residence of Mr. John Cowan, 
where my father was stopping. We remained at Shelbyville quite a num- 
ber of days, and then proceeded, in company with my father, to Fayetteville 
to visit a brother (ten years of age), then lying sick. We stopped at 
Fayetteville some days, returned to Shelbyville, remained there a few days, 
and then proceeded to return to Nashville, where we arrived this afternoon. 
Whether I went through the camps of the so-called Confederate army or 
not I do not feel inclined to state. Neither is it agreeable for me to state 
any thing about the rebel army in any particular. I decline to make any 
statement as to any of the generals. I obtained the belt that was taken 
from me by Colonel Truesdail from a cousin of mine, at Shelbyville. His 
name is Bright Morgan. It was worn at the battle of Murfreesborough by 
a young man by the name of John Morgan. 

" Susie R. Elliott. 

" I subscribe to this statement. " Mary Elliott." 

Among the papers of the Misses Elliott were found the passes they had 
used in Dixie. Let us preserve them in the " Annals." 

" Days . 

"No. 



" Pbovost-Marshal's Office, Shelbyville, Tenn., April 6, 1863. 
"Pass Dr. Elliott and two daughters to Fayetteville, Tennessee, upon 
honor not to communicate any thing that may prove detrimental to the 

Confederate States. 

" (Signed) Wm. B. Dallas, for J. M. Hawkins, 

^* Major and Provost-Marshal." 

" Shelbyville, April 26, 1863. 
" Confederate States of America. — Guards and pickets will pass Miss 
Susie Elliott to Nashville and return. Baggage not to be searched. 

"C. A. Thompson, 

" Colonel Confederate Army," 

As usual, the letters found with these young ladies were mainly of a 
domestic, melancholy character. We subjoin the following extract from a 
letter— writer unknown to us— to Mark Cockrill, Esq., of Nashville :— 



THE MISSES ELLIOTT. 611 

*• We are all doing well, — duiug extremely well, considering that we are 
confined to the limits of the army, and are dieted — from necessity — to oveu 
boaus and corn bread, — all of which we get in greatest plenty. The 
rumor which you all have aiioat about the rations of our army being short 
is not true. As yet we have plenty ; and there seems to be very good prospect 
of the continuation of that abundance. The South is full of corn, and the 
wheat-crop in the portion of Tennessee which we hold is very fine. . . . 
Provisions South are all purchased by the army, and 'tis very difficult for 
families to procure the necessaries of life ; and I would advise you all not to 
come unless you are unsufferably oppressed." 

The subjoined letter is also readable. Our readers in Nashville will know 
to whom it is addressed : — 

" Shelbtville, April 26, 1863. 
" Dear Niece : — 

" Tell Dewess that I am happy and proud to know that he is still faithful 
to the cause of the South, and that it is my sincerest prayer and firmest 
belief that he will remain so. Tell him that his old friends in the army 
understand his position, appreciate his feelings, and sympathize with him ; 
and tell him, above all, that if necessary he must sacrifice his own hap- 
piness to that of his mother, and in the end all will be well. Now comes 
the secret and equally foolish part. Tell Mary— I can't say Miss Mary— 
that I still love, but without hope ; and I can only hope that she will think 
of me as a friend and as the friend of her brother. Do you think she would 
correspond with me ? — as a friend, I mean. "Write to me about all these 
things as soon as you can. I enclose a very brief note for Miss Bessie 
Thompson. Be certain to let no one see it, and give it to her the first oppor- 
tunity you have. Tell grandma that I would write now, but that you can 
tell her every thing, and that it is unsafe for you to carry letters, and that 
I will write the fiTst chance I have. The rebels will be in Nashville this 
summer ; but you must not wait for them, but come out as soon as you can. 
Give my best love to grandma. Aunt Lizzie, Julia, Lizzie, Uncle Frank, and 
all my friends in Nashville. Remember me to Ellen, Ann, and all the 
servants, if they are there. But I must close. My very best love to Mary 
and yourself. Porter." 

Attached to this epistle is the following order for " something to wear," 
&c., for which the valiant " Porter," it seems, has to look to the miserable 
Yankee mudsills : — 

Order for Bill of Goods for Summer. 

" Socks, drawers, and other summer clothes, with my black suit, soft hat, 
shoes, and two pair kid gloves, pants suitable for summer; a suit of summer 
clothes: let the clothes be a dark gray; two tooth-brushes, and three fine 

combs." . 3 • e i.\. 

List of prices of different articles in the South, contained m one ot the 

letters found with the Misses Elliott. 



612 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

Ginger-cakes, 50 cents to $1. 

Candy, $10 per pound, 25 cents per stick. 

Tobacco, $3 to |4 per pound. 

" smoking, $3.50 to $4 per pound. 
Whiskey, $40 to $50 per gallon, — all taken at that. 
Sardines, $4 to $5 per box, 50 cents each retail. 
Wine, $8 to $10 per bottle,— $100 to get tight. 

Cigars, I25 cents, 15 cents, and 25 cents each. Sticking-plaster, to draw 
on back of neck, thrown in. 

Pocket-knives, $12, $15, and $20 each, — prices sharp as razors. 
Oysters, $1 per dozen, $6 per can, — three years old. 
Breakfast at restaurant, $16 ; wine extra. 
Eggs, $1.50, $2, and $3 per dozen ; chickens thrown in. 
Butter, $2 and $3 per pound. " Whistle and it comes to you." 
Pan-cakes, 50 cents each. " One lasts all day." 

The Misses Elliott were sent South speedily, to revel in the full enjoyment 
of all their " rights," where it is to be hoped they will ere long become 
wiser .and better women. 



Eilldare, tlie Scout. 



One of the most active and efficient men in the secret service is Killdare, 
the scout. For prudential reasons, we withhold his real name. The cir- 
cumstances attending his first introduction to the Chief of Police and leading 
to his subsequent employment by that official have already been related in 
a preceding sketch, — " A Nest of Nashville Smugglers," — and need not be 
repeated here. Whatever it is necessary to know of his personal history, 
too, is there told ; and all that the author proposes in this notice is to give, as 
nearly in his own words as possible, the report of two trips which he made 
into the rebel lines. In themselves interesting narratives, affording an inside 
view of rebeldom, they become still more so as a descriptive revelation of 
some of the devices and subterfuges necessarily resorted to by this class of 
men in the prosecution of their dangerous and most important enterprises. 

In March last, Killdare left Nashville on horseback with a small stock 
of goods, of less than a hundred dollars in value, with the purpose of making 
his way into and through a certain portion of the Confederacy. Swimming 
his horse across Harpeth Creek, and himself crossing in a canoe, he jour- 
neyed on, and passed the night at a house some six miles beyond Columbia, 
having previously fallen in with some of Forrest's men going to Columbia. 
The next morning he started for Shelbyville, where he arrived in due 
season. What there, and in the subsequent portions of his trip, occurred, 
we will let him tell in his own words. 

" When I arrived, I could find stabling, but no feed, for my horse. I put 



KILLDARE, THE SCOUT. 613 

the animal in the kitchen of a house, and gave a boy five dollars to get me a 
half-bushel of corn, there being none in the town. I sold the little stock of 
goods to the firm of James Carr & Co., of Nashville, who gave me eight 
hundred dollars for the lot, and then went to visit General Frank Cheatham, 
General !Maney, and General Bates, whom I saw at the house where I 

stopped. At the head-quarters of General Cheatham, Colonel A arrived 

from the front, and stated in my presence that the whole Federal line had 
fallen back ; and I further understood from the generals present and Colonel 

A that there would be no fight at Shelby ville. They said that probably 

there would be some skirmishing by the Federals, but that the battle would 
be fought at TuUahoma, and they had not more than one corps at Shelby- 
ville, which is under General Polk. 

" Forage and provisions for man and beast it is utterly impossible to obtain 
in the vicinity of Shelbyville. The forage-trains go as far as Lewisport, in 
Giles county, and the forage is then shipped to Tullahoma, and even farther 
back, for safe keeping, — as far as Bridgeport. Confederate money is two 
for one of Georgia ; Tennessee, two and one-half for one. 

" I next went to Tullahoma ; and there I met on the cars a major on 
Bragg's staff, and scraped an acquaintance through the introduction of 
a Nashville gentleman. When we arrived within a few miles of Tullahoma, 
he made a short statement to me, called me to the platform, and pointed 
out the rifle-pits and breastworks, which extended on each side of the rail- 
road about a mile, in not quite a right angle. The whole force of Bragg' s 
army is composed of fifty-five thousand men, well disciplined : twenty 
thousand of them are cavalry. When I left Tullahoma, I could not buy 
meat nor bread. When I arrived at Chattanooga, I gave a nigger one dollar 
for a drink of whiskey, one dollar for a small cake, and fifty cents for two 
eggs, which I took for subsistence and started for Atlanta. I met, going 
thitherward, a good many acquaintances on the trains. When I arrived at 
Atlanta, I found a perfect panic in money-matters. Georgia money was at 
Beventy-five cents premium, and going up ; gold, four and five dollars for 
one. I remained at Atlanta three days. Full one-half of those I met were 
from Nashville : they were glad to see me. 

" I commenced my return to Tullahoma with a captain from Nashville, 
who also showed me the rifle-pits, as I before stated. I made my way on 
to Shelbyville, and then I got a pass from the provost-marshal— a Major 
Hawkins— to Columbia, where I arrived on Sunday morning. There I 
found Forrest and his command had crossed Duck River on their way to 
Franklin. As I started from the Nelson Hotel to the provost-marshal's 
office, I was arrested on the square as a straggling soldier ; but I proved 
myself the contrary, and started without a pass to Williamsport. There 
some fool asked me if I had a pass. I told him ' yes,' and showed him the 
pass 1 had from Shelbyville to Columbia and the documents I had in my 
possession, which he could not read. I gave the ferryman a five-dollar 
piece to take me across the river, and he vouched for my pass,— when I 
safely arrived at the Federal pickets." 
K 



614 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

About a month after this, Killdare made another, and his last, trip, the 
full report of which is subjoined. It will be seen that he was watched and 
several times arrested. Though he finally escaped, his usefulness as a spy 
was totally destroyed, his name, appearance, and business having been 
betrayed to the enemy. He has consequently retired from the business. 
On his return he made the following report : — 

" 1 left the city of Nashville on Tuesday, the 14th instant, to go South, 
taking with me a few goods to peddle. I passed down the Charlotte pike, 
and travelled two miles up the Richland Creek, then crossed over to the 
Hardin pike, following that road to Harpeth Creek, and crossed below De- 
Morse's mill. At the mill I met De Morse, who said to me, ' Killdare, 

do you make another trip?' I replied, ' I do not know.' De Morse then 
said, ' If you get below the meeting-house you are saved,' and smiled. I 
proceeded on my way until I came to a blacksmith-shop on the pike, at 
which a gentleman by the name of Marlin came out and asked if I had 
heard any thing of Sanford being killed on the evening of the 13th instant. 
I told Marliu I did not know any thing about it, and proceeded on to South 
Harper to Squire Allison's, which is seventeen miles from Nashville. I 
then fed my mules, stopped about one hour, and proceeded across South 
Harper towards Williamsport. 

" About one mile the other side of South Harper, two rebel scouts came 
galloping up, and asked me what I had for sale. I told them needles, pins, 
and playing-cards. They then inquired, ' Have you any papers to go 
South V I replied I had, and showed them some recommendations. They 
asked me to get down from my carryall, as they wanted to talk with me. 
This I did ; and they then asked, — 

" ' Have you any pistols ?' 

" ' No,' I replied. 

" Stepping back a few paces, and each drawing a pistol, one of them 

said, ' You scoundrel, you are our prisoner : you are a Yankee 

spy, and you carry letters from the South, and at the dead hour • of 
night you carry these letters to Truesdail's office. We lost a very valuable 
man on Monday while attempting to arrest you at your house : his name 
was Sanford, and he was a great deal thought of by General Van Dorn. So 
now we've got you, you, turn your wagon round and go back.' 

" We turned and went to Squire Allison's again, at which place I met Dr. 
Morton, from Nashville, whom I requested to assist in getting me released. 
Dr. Morton spoke to the men, who, in reply, said, ' We have orders to 
arrest him as a spy, for carrying letters to Truesdail's head-quarters.' Thoy 
then turned back to South Harper Creek, and took me up the creek about 
one mile, where we met about eight more of these scouts and Colonel 
McNairy, of Nashville, who was riding along in a buggy. The lieutenant 
in command of the squad wrote a despatch to Van Dorn, and gave it to one 
of the men, by the name of Thompson, who had me in custody, and we then 
proceeded up the creek to Spring Hill, towards the head-quarters of General 



KILLDARE, THE SCOUT. 6l0 

Van Dorn. About six miles up the creek, Thompson learned I had gome 
whiskey, -which I gave him, and of which he drank until he got pretty well 
intoxicated. In the neighborhood of Ivy we stopped until about six o'clock 
in the evening. About one mile from Ivy the wheel of my carryall broke. 
A neighbor came to us with an axe and put a pole under the axletree, and 
we proceeded on our way. We had gone but a few hundred yards when the 
wagon turned over : we righted it, and Thompson took a carpet-sack full 

of goods, filled his pockets, and then told me 'to go to : he would 

not take me to head-quarters.' Changing his mind, however, he said he 
would, as he had orders so to do, and showed me the despatch written by 
Lieutenant Johnson to General Van Dorn. It read as follows : — 



<i ( 



I have succeeded in capturing Mr. Killdare. Archy Cheatham, of 
Nashville, says Killdare is not loyal to the Confederacy. The Federals 
have mounted five hundred light infantry. Sanford's being killed is con- 
firmed. (Signed) Liect. Johnson.' 

" Thompson, being very drunk, left me, taking the goods he stole. Two 
citizens came up shortly and told me to turn round, and stop all night at 
Isaac Ivy's, 1st District, Williamson county. There we took the remainder 
of the goods into the house. At three o'clock in the morning a negro 
woman came and knocked at the door. 

" Mr. Ivy says, ' What do you want?' 

" ' A soldier is down at the creek, and wants to know where his prisoner 
is,' was the reply. 

" ' What has he done with the goods he took from that man?' 

" ' He has left them at our house, and has just started up the creek as I 
came up.' 

" ' That will do. Go on.' 

" I was awake, and tried to make my escape, asking Mr. Ivy if he had a 
couple of saddles to loan me. He said he had ; and I borrowed from him 
seven dollars, as Thompson took all my money (fifty dollars in Georgia 
currency). He (Ivy) then told me the route I should take, — going a few 
miles towards Franklin, and then turn towards my home in Nashville. 
Taking Ivy's advice, we proceeded on our way towards Franklin. About 
eight miles from Franklin, four guerrillas came up to me and fired two 
pistols. ' Halt !' said they : ' you want to make your way to the Yankees. 
We have a notion to kill you, any way.' 

" They then ordered me to turn, which I did,— two going behind, whipping 
the mules, and hooting and hallooing at a great rate. We then turned 
back to Ivy's. When we got there, I said,— 

" ' Where is Thompson, my guard, who told me to go on V 

'"He was here early this morning, and has gone up the hill hunting you, 
after borrowing my. shot-gun,' was the answer. 

" Some conversation ensued between the parties, when Ivy wrote a note to 
General Van Dorn and gave it to Thompson. Ivy then gave us our equip- 



616 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

age, aud we went towards Spring Hill. On the way we met, on Cai'ter's 
Creek pike, a camp of four hundred Texan Rangers. AVe arrived at Spring 
Hill at sundown of the day following. At Van Dorn's head-quarters I 
asked for an interview with the general, which was not allowed, but waa 
ordered to Columbia to prison until further orders. 

" On Friday evening a Nashville soldier who stood sentinel let me out, 
and said, ' You have no business here.' I made my way towards Shelby- 
ville, crossed over Duck Creek ; made my way to the Louisburg and Frank- 
lin pike, and started towards Franklin. Before we got to the pickets 
we took to the woods, and thus got round the pickets. A farmer reported 
having seen me to the guard, and I was taken again towards Van Dorn's 
head-quarters, six miles distant. I had gone about one mile, when I fell in 
with Colonel Lewis's command, and was turned over to an orderly-ser- 
geant with whom I was acquainted and by whom I was taken to the head- 
quarters of Colonel Lewis. There I was discharged from arrest, and was 
told by the colonel what route I should take in order to avoid the scouts. 
I then started towards Columbia, and thence towards Hillsborough. At 
Hillsborough I met a friend by the name of Parkham, who guided me 
within five miles of Franklin, where I arrived at daylight this morning. 
On Friday last Colonel Forrest passed through Columbia with his force 
(three thousand strong), and six pieces of artillery, to Decatur, Alabama. 
One regiment went to Florence. The whole force under Van Dorn at Spring 
Hill does not exceed four thousand ; aud they are poorly clothed. I under- 
stood that the force was moving towards Tennessee River, in order to inter- 
cept forces that were being sent out liy General Grant. 

" Sam. Killdare." 

This Archy Cheatham, who it appears had informed upon Killdare, was 
a Government contractor, and professed to be loyal. The manner in which 
he obtained his information was in this wise. 

One day a genteel, well-dressed young man came to the police office and 
inquired for Judge Brien, an employ^ of the office. The two, it seems, were 
old acquaintances, and for some time maintained a friendly conversation 
in the presence of Colonel Trnesdail. The visitor, whose name was Stewart, 
having taken his leave, Brien remarked to the colonel, — 

" There is a young man who can do us a great deal of good." 

" Do you know him ?" said the colonel. 

" Very well. He talks right." 

The result was that Stewart and Colonel Truesdail soon afterwards had 
a private conversation in reference to the matter. Stewart stated that he 
lived about two miles from the city upon his plantation, that he was inti- 
mate with many prominent secessionists, was regarded as a good Southern 
man, and could go anywhere within the lines of the Confederacy. The 
colonel replied that he was in want of just such a man. and that he could 
be the means of accomplishing great good. It was an office, however, of 
vast responsibility, and, if he should be employed, he would be reqv.ired to 



KILLDARE, THE SCOUT. 617 

take a very stringent and solemn oath, whicli yvas read to him. To all this 
Stewart assented, and took the oath, only stipulating that hb should never 
be mentioned as having any connection with the police office. He was con- 
sequently employed, and told to go to work at once. 

For a time all seemed well enough. One or two minor cases of smuggling 
were developed by him. He subsequently reported that he had become 
acquainted with the cashier of the Planters' Bank and a Mrs. Bradford, 
who lived five miles from the city and made herself very busy in carrying 
letters, in which she was aided by Cantrell, the cashier. He was also in 
the habit of meeting large numbers of secessionists, among whom was Archy 
Cheatham. He also was a member of a club or association which met every 
Saturday to devise ways and means for aiding the rebellion, and at which 
Mrs. Bradford and Cantrell were constant attendants. One day he re- 
ported that Mrs. Bradford was just going to carry out what was ostensibly 
a barrel of flour, but really a barrel of contraband goods covered over with 
flour at each end. And so it went on from week to week. Somebody was 
just going to do something, but never did it, or was never detected ; and, 
despite the manj' fair promises of Stewart, the results of his labors were not 
deemed satisfactory. 

On the night that Killdare came in from his last trip, Stewart was at the 
office. Something was evidently wrong, and Stewart soon left. To some 
natural inquiries of the colonel, Killdare answered, excitedly, — 

" Somebody has nearly ruined me, colonel I" 

" How is that, and who can it be ?" 

" Well, I am sure that it is a man by the name of Stewart and Archy 
Cheatham who have done the mischief. Cheatham has been out in the 
country some fourteen miles, and there he met Lieutenant Johnson, whom 
he told that I was disloyal to the Confederacy and one of your spies. The 
result was that I was arrested, and came near — altogether too near hang- 
ing for comfort. Johnson telegraphed to Van Dorn that he had caught 
me ; but I got away, and, to make a long story short, have been arrested 
and have escaped three times." 

This opened the colonel's eyes somewhat, and inquiries were at once set 
on foot, which disclosed the fact that Stewart was a rebel of the deepest dye 
and had been "playing oS"" all the time. It was found that he had not 
only informed Cheatham of Killdare's business and position, but had him- 
self been out in the country some fourteen miles, and had told the neighbors 
that Killdare had gone South in Truesdail's employ. He told the same 
thing to two guerrillas whom he mot, and even taunted Killdare's children 
by saying that he knew where their father had gone. The colonel, for 
once, had been thoroughly deceived by appearances ; but it was the first 
and last time. After a jnonth or six weeks' search, Stewart was found and 
committed to the penitentiary ; and before he leaves that institution it is by 
no means improbable that he will have ample time and opportunity to con- 
clude that his operations, though sharp and skilful, were not of the most 
ijrofitable character. 



618 . ARMY POLICE RECORD. 



Death of a Eebel General and Villain, 

The name of the rebel General Earl Van Dorn will figure largely in the 
history of the rebellion in the Southwest. A bold, bad, brave man, hia 
Budden and tragic death is a fit ending of his earthly career. A betrayer 
of his country, of his own home and fireside, and of the honor and peace 
of another once loved and happy family, the penalty he paid for his crimes 
was merited, if not lawful. The several newspaper versions of the affair 
heretofore published are grossly incorrect ; and to the records of the police 
of the Army of the Cumberland we can appeal with confidence in the 
truthfulness of their revelations. 

Upon the escape of Dr. George B. Peters and his arrival within the lines 
of the Federal army. Colonel Truesdail, then at Murfreesborough, learning 
of his arrival, ordered him to be held, that he might be examined as to the 
facts touching his killing of Earl Van Dorn, and also as to his political 
sentiments, whereupon he was arrested and held until Colonel Truesdail's 
return, and the following narrative of facts obtained, as well as conclusive 
evidence that he was and had been a loyal citizen to the United States 
Government. 

" Office of Army Police, Nashville, May 23, 1863. 

"voluntary statement of dr. GEORGE B. PETERS. 

" I was born in the State of North Carolina, and raised in Murray county, 
Tennessee, where I now reside. I have practised medicine twenty-three 
years in Bolivar, Hardeman county, Tennessee. I was State Senator 
from the Twenty-First Senatorial District of Tennessee in the years 1859- 
60-61. For some years past I have been planting in Philips county, Ar- 
kansas, where I have been constantly during the last twelve months. After 
the Federal troops reached Helena, Arkansas, and had possession of the 
Mississippi River to that point, I went to Memphis and took the oath of 
allegiance to the United States Government. This was in the summer of 
1862. After that time I dealt in cotton and carried supplies to my neigh- 
bors by consent of the military authorities there commanding, and never 
went beyond the Federal lines until recently. I have in my possession 
safeguards from Rear-Admiral Porter, commanding gunboat flotilla, and 
Major-General U. S. Grant, commanding Department of Mississippi, for the 
protection of my property. About the 4th day of April, 1863, I came to 
Memphis and obtained a pass to go to Bolivar, Tennessee, at which place 
I received a pass from General Brannan, commanding post, to pass out of 
the Federal lines, my intention being to go to Spring Hill, Murray county, 
where my wife and family were staying. I arrived at my home on the 12th 
of April, and was alarmed at the distressing rumorS which prevailed in the 
neighborhood in relation to the attentions paid by General Van Dorn to my 
wife. I was soon convinced of his intentional guilt, — although a doubt still 
lingered on my mind as to the guilt of my wife. After witnessing many 
incidents too numerous and unpleasant to relate, and which confirmed the 



DEATH OF A REBEL GENERAL AND VILLAIN. 619 

guilt of General Van Dorn, on one occasion, when a servant brought a note 
to my house, I distinctly told him I would blow his brains out if he ever 
entered the premises again, and to tell his whiskey-headed master, General 
Van Dorn, that I would blow his brains out, or any of his staff that stepped 
their foot inside of the lawn, and I wanted them to distinctly understand it. 
My wife did not hear this order. 

" Notwithstanding all this, I came to Nashville on the 22d of April, and 
was exceedingly mortified on my return home to hear that Van Dorn had 
visited my house every night by himself during my absence, my wife 
having no company but her little children. I then determined to catch the 
villain at his tricks : so I feigned a trip to Shelbyville, but really did not 
leave the premises. The second night after my supposed and pretended 
absence, I came upon the creature, about half-past two o'clock at night, 
where I expected to find him. He readily acknowledged my right to kill 
him, and I fully intended to do so, — gave him a few moments to make 
certain declarations, — in which he intended to exonerate my wife from dis- 
honor and to inculpate himself completely, — and, upon his agreeing to make 
certain acknowledgments over his own signature, I agreed to give his life 
to his wife and children. He readily, upon the honor of a soldier, accepted 
the proposition, but stated that he cared but little for his wife. I then 
ordered him off, and we parted about three o'clock. Next day, being sick 
in bed, I was unable to call upon him as agreed upon between us ; but the 
second morning, after having recruited my health sufficiently, I called upon 
him and notified him that I was ready to receive that written acknowledg- 
ment, — when he attempted to evade it by springing a discussion as to its 
propriety. I unhesitatingly told him I would give him one half-hour, and 
further told him that he knew what the consequence would be in case of a 
refusal to comply. I then went up through the village to communicate to 
a friend these facts, inasmuch as no one else was privy to them. At the 
expiration of the time, I returned to Van Dorn's head-quarters, and found 
him engaged in writing. He stopped and read to me what he had written. 
The first proposition was written out in accordance with the previous inter- 
view ; the second was a misrepresentation and lie ; the remaining two he 
utterly refused to comply with. I then denounced him for his bad faith ; 
and he in reply said it would injure the cause, the service, and his reputa- 
tion for that thing to be made public. I answered, ' You did not think so 
tliirty hours ago, when your life was in my hands : you were then ready 
to promise any thing. Now you think I am in your power, and you will do 
nothing ; but, sir, if you don't comply with my demands I will instantly 
blow your brains out.' He replied, scowlingly, ' You d— d cowardly dog, 
take that door, or I will kick you out of it.' I immediately drew my pistol, 
aiming to shoot him in the forehead, when, by a convulsive movement 
of his head, he received the shot in the left side of his head just above the 
ear, killing him instantly. I picked up the scroll he had written, for evi- 
dence. I then went to Shelbyville to surrender myself to General Polk, 
believing they would not arrest me. Finding out, however, that they 



620 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

intended arresting and incarcerating me, I came around by McMinnviUe, 
thence by Gallatin to Nashville, within the Federal lines. I shot him 
about eight o'clock in the morning. Van Dorn was seated at his desk. 
When I arrived at Spring Hill first. Van Dorn immediately had me paroled. 
When I reached Nashville, having left my cei-tificate of having taken the 
oath of allegiance at Memphis, I renewed the oath and gave security. 

/ " George B. Peters." 



Prison-Experience of a Union Spy. 

As an illustration of the cruelty of the Southern rebels, the following nar- 
rative of James Pike, a member of Company A, 4th Ohio Cavalry, is given 
in his own words. Upon leaving Macon, Georgia, he came to Kichmond, 
and after considerable delay he was exchanged and went to Ohio, where he 
was ordered to report to Governor Tod, who sent him to his command at 
Murfreesborough. Much of Pike's statement has been fully corroborated 
by other testimony. The spirit which could prompt such treatment towai'ds 
helpless prisoners needs no comment. It exhibits a phase of Southern cha- 
racter which should call to the cheek of every friend of humanity a flush of 
indignation, and inspire within his breast a determination to visit upon the 
heads of these violators of the laws of humanity and civilization well-merited 
retribution. 

" MuRFKEESBOKOUGH, March 22, 1863. 

" On the 24th of April, 1862, I was taken prisoner near the town of Bridge- 
port, Tennessee, by a battalion of rebel cavalry under command of a Colonel 
Starns. I was alone on a scout at the time, and fell in with nine of the 
enemy's pickets. I got the first shot, and killed the sergeant (so I was told 
by Captain Poe, who had command of the pickets). I was pursued by five 
companies of cavalry. After running several miles, I was obliged to stop 
and dismount at a house to get something to eat, and while there was sur- 
rounded by one of the pursuing companies and captured. I was then tied 
on a horse and carried over a mountain to where the battalion was camped, 
arriving there about nine o'clock p.m. When we got there, I was immediately 
surrounded by about two hundred men, some crying, 'Hang him!' 'Shoot 

him !' ' Shoot the d d Yankee !' a.nd several levelled their guns on me, 

eome of them being cocked. A Captain Haines told them that I was his 
prisoner and under his protection, and he detailed twenty-four men to guard 
me, placing two men at each corner of my blanket. When we went to bed, 
the captain lay down on one side of me and his first lieutenant on the 
other ; and in this way I was preserved from assassination. 

*' The next day I was taken to Bridgeport. I fared very well at that place ; 
but the day following I was taken to Chattanooga and confined in the jaii, a 



PRISON-EXPERIENCE OF A UNION SPY. 621 

two-story building. The upper story, where I was confined, was ab-^ut 
twelve feet square. Here were confined nineteen Tennesseeans, a negro, and 
myself. In the dungeon, which was only ten feet square, were confined 
twenty-one men belonging to the 2d, the 31st, and 33d Ohio Infantry, who 
were charged with being spies. They were under command of a Captain 
Andrews, who was then under sentence of death by a court-martial recently 
held at Chattanooga. They were waiting for the Secretary of War at Rich- 
mond to ratify the proceedings of the court-martial previous to executing 
the captain, and they said if they were ratified that the rest would certainly 
be hung. I was afterwards informed by the rebels that Andrews and eight 
of the men were hung at Atlanta, Georgia. I was told subsequently by 
rebel citizens that they hung Andrews and seventeen men. I once went 
into the dungeon where these men were, and found them handcuffed, and 
chained in pairs by the neck with a heavy chain, which was locked around 
each man's neck with a padlock that would weigh two pounds. These 
padlocks were larger than a man's hand. We were fed twice a day on 
tolerably good bread, spoiled beef, and coffee made of cane-seed. There was 
no sink in the jail ; and our offal stood in a bucket in the room where we 
were confined, day and night, and was only emptied twice a day, and of 
course the stench was intolerable. We were denied the privilege of washing 
our clothes, or having it done. The jail was literally swarming with vermin, 
nor was it ever cleaned out. 

"From Chattanooga I was taken to Knoxville to another jail, and confined 
in an iron cage. Here I was told by a man named Fox, the jailer, that I 
was brought to Knoxville to be tried by a court-martial as a spy, and that 
if I was tried I would no doubt be hung. This court-martial adjourned 
without bringing me to a trial, as did the one at Chattanooga. From there 
I was sent to Mobile, where another court-martial was in session. After 
keeping me about eight days at this place, I was next sent to Tuscaloosa^ 
Alabama. From this city I was taken, in company with all the prisoners 
at that post, to Montgomery, Alabama. The first day out I was taken ill 
with pneumonia and typhoid fever ; but the rebel surgeons refused me any 
medicines, and even a bed, and I was left for twelve days lying on the deck 
of the boat, with nothing to eat but corn-bread and beef, which latter, the 
rebels said, had been packed five years. At Tuscaloosa they shot a Federal 
soldier for looking out of a window, and wounded another in the face for the 
same offence. At Montgomery they refused to let me go to a hospital, 
although in an utterly helpless condition. Here- they shot a Federal lieu- 
tenant under the following circumstances : he had been allowed to go out 
for milk, accompanied by a guard, and he was waiting for a woman to hand 
the milk out through a window, when the guard gave the order to 'come m.' 
'Wait a moment till I get my milk,' said the lieutenant. The guard made 
no reply, but instantly shot him in the breast with a shot-gun, killing him 
forthwith. 

" From Montgomery I was taken to Macon, Georgia, in company with 
twelve hundred others. Here we were allowed seven pounds of corn-meal 



622 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

and two aud a half pounds of bacon of bad quality for seven days. We 
were allowed two surgeons and but very little medicine. Our men fared 
badly here, being punished severely for the most trifling offences. One man, 
named Cora, was kept tied up three days by the wrists to a tree, so that his 
toes just touched the ground, because he helped kill a yearling calf that got 
into the camp. A Floridian and two Kentuckians, political prisoners, were 
confined in the jail of Macon on quarter-rations for twenty-two days. The 
only offence they had committed was to attempt to escape from the prison- 
lot. Our men were pegged down on the ground for any misdemeanor. 
This was done by stretching out the limbs and driving a forked stick down 
over them, and the operation was completed by driving one down over the 
neck. It would be impossible to tell all of the hardships to which we were 
subjected; but I have endeavored to portray a few of them. They may be 
summed up thus : — 

" We were confined in bad quarters, and many were without any quarters. 
Our dead were left unburied for days together, and some entirely so, — at 
least to our knowledge. We were denied medical attendance. Our chap- 
lains were forbid preaching to us or praying for us [by order of Major 
Rylander). Our men and officers were shot without cause. An insane 
Federal was shot at Macon, Georgia, for no offence. We were compelled to 
bury our dead in the river-banks where their bodies were liable to be 
washed out. We were beaten with clubs while on board the steamer en 
route for Montgomery, Alabama. We were fed on foul and unwholesome 
diet, and frequently left without any rations for two or three days at a time. 
Our exchange was delayed as long as possible, and we were confined in 
camps surrounded by swamps, as the rebels said, that we all might die. I 
find it impossible to enumerate all the hardships put upon us, but have enu- 
merated such as were the most intolerable. 

"James Pike, 
" Co. A, Uh 0. V. C" 

Having thus been imprisoned in several of the Southern States, our spy 
was finally exchanged in Virginia, and returned to our army in March last, 
after eleven months of absence, and mostly of captivity. 



A Nameless Spy. 

We have a difficult task to perform in this chapter, —to describe the opera- 
tions of one of the most daring and valuable spies of the Army of the 
Cumberland, and yet to so protect him as regards identity that he may not 
incur the risk of future injury, and perhaps of assassination, at the hands 
of rebels or their sympathiaers in the South. We are about to speak of a 



A NAMELESS SPY, 623 

spy who went into and came out from Bragg's army at Murfreesborougn 
three times during the week of battles at Stone River, — who even dined at 
the table of Bragg and of his other generals, — who brought us correct in- 
formation as to the force and position of the rebel army, and of the boasts 
of its head-officers. This spy was the first to assure us positively that Bragg 
would fight at Stone River, telling us of that general's boast that " he would 
whip Rosecrans back to Nashville if it cost ten thousand men." For the four 
days' service thus rendered by our spy he was paid five thousand dollars by 
order of our general, and the author saw the money passed to him. 

In 18G2 there lived in the vState of a Union man, with wife and 

children. He was a friend of the Union, and an anti-slavei'y man upon 
principle. After the rebellion broke out, and when the " Southern heart" 
had become fired, this man, living in a strong pro-slavery region and sur- 
rounded by opulent slaveholders, his own family connections and those 
of his wife being also wealthy and bitter secessionists, very prudently held 
his peace, feeling his utter inability to stem the tide of the rebellion in hia 
section. This reticence, together with his known Southern birth and 
relations, enabled him to pass unsuspected, and almost unobserved, at 
a time when Breckinridge, Marshall, Preston, and Buckner, and other 
ardent politicians of Kentucky chose the rebellion as their portion and 
endeavored to carry with them the State amidst a blaze of- excitement. 
Thus, without tacit admissions or any direct action upon his part, the gen- 
tleman of whom we write was classed by the people of his section as a 
secessionist. 

Circumstances occurred during that year by which this person was 
brought into contact with a Federal commander in Kentucky, General 
Nelson. Their meeting and acquaintance was accidental. Mutual Union 
sentiments begat personal sympathy and friendship. Nelson wished a cer- 
tain service performed in the rebel territory, and he persuaded the citizen 
to undertake it,— which the latter finally did as a matter of duty, we are 
assured, rather than of gain, for he made no charge for the service after its 
speedy and successful performance. Soon after, a similar work was neces- 
sary ; and again was the citizen importuned, and he again consented, but 
not considering himself as a professional spy. 

During this or a similar trip, and while at Chattanooga, our man heard of 
the sudden death of General Nelson. He was now at a loss what to do. 
Finally he determined to return and report his business to Major-General 
Rosecrans, who had assumed command of the Federal army. Thus resolved, 
he proceeded to finish his mission. After ascertaining the position of mili- 
tary affairs at Chattanooga, he came to Murfreesborough, where Bragg's 
army was then collecting. Staying here several days, he was urged by his 
Southern army friends to act as their spy in Kentucky. The better to 
conceal his own feelings and position, he consented to do so, and he left 
General Bragg's head-quarters to go to that State by way of Nashville, 
feigning important business, and from thence to go to his home, passing 



624 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

by and through Rosecrans's army as it lay stretched out between Nashville 
and Louisville. 

The nameless man now makes his way to the Federal head-quarters, seeks 
a private interview with General Rosecrans, and states his case fully as we 
have just related. Here was something remarkable, surely, — a spy in the 
confidence of the commanders of two great opposing armies! Our general, 
took much pains to satisfy himself of the honesty and soundness of the 
stranger. He was pleased with the man's candid manner, and his story 
bore an air of consistency and truth. Yet he was a Southerner, surrounded 
by rebellious influences, and enjoyed Bragg's confidence ; and what guarantee 
could be given that he was a Union man at heart ? None ; and our general, 
in great perplexity, held council with his Chief of Police, and requested the 
latter to " dig up" the case to its very root. This was done ; but in what 
manner we need not specially state. Satisfied that it would do to trust the 
spy, to a certain extent at least, he was now sent on his way to perform 
his mission for Bragg. At all events, that scheming general so supposed 
when our man's report was made at the rebel head-quarters a few days 
afterwards. His information was very acceptable to Bragg ; but we strongly 
question its value to rebeldom, as the spy reported only what he was told by 
that old fox Colonel Truesdail. 

Perhaps the reader will inquire, how can we answer for the report thus 
made to Bragg? it may have been more true and valuable than we sup- 
posed. Well, there is force in the query. We are fallen upon strange times, 
when honesty, virtue, and patriotism are at heavy discount in rebeldom, 
and the Indian's idea of the uncertainty of white men is by no means a 
myth. However, we were then quite confident of the worthlessness of the 
report of our spy to Bragg, because he had nothing else to tell him. For 
five days did our spy keep himself locked in a private room in the police 
building at Nashville. His meals were carried to him by a trusty servant. 
His door was " shadowed" constantly by our best detectives, and so were 
his steps if he ventured upon the street for a few moments after dark. It 
was cold and bleak winter weather, and he toasted himself before his com- 
fortable fire, read books and papers, and conferred often with the Chief of 
Police and his assistant, affording them, strangers as they were to that 
region of country, a fund of valuable information respecting the rebels of 
Kentucky and Tennessee. He was a man of fine address and good in- 
tellectual attainments. When our man concluded it was about time for 
his return to Bragg's army, he was politely escorted by our mounted police 
to a proper point beyond our lines, and by a route where he would see 
nothing of our forces. The reader will now appreciate the grounds of our 
confidence, we doubt not, in the worthlessness of at least one of General 
Braxton Bragg's spy reports. 

In due time this nameless gentleman again enters our lines, and is escorted 
in by our pickets to the general commanding, to whom he reports in person 
concerning all that is transpiring in Bragg's army at Murfreesborougb, and 
then he resumes his pleasant private quarters at the army police building. 



A NAMELESS SPY. 625 

Ilo-n- little could the rebel general Zollicoffer have thought, or have imagined 
as the wildest dream, while building his elegant house in High Street, Nash- 
ville, that its gorgeous rooms should ever be devoted to such purposes I After 
a brief staj', another trip was made by our man to Bragg's head-quarters, 
we using the same precautions as previously. In fact, our spy desired, 
and even demanded, such attention at the hands of the Chief of Police. 
Said he, — 

" I am a stranger to you all. I can give you no guarantee whatever of my 
good faith. It is alike due to you and to myself that I be allowed no 
opportunities for deceiving you." 

The report he carried to Bragg on his second trip delighted the latter. 
Ilis ofBcers talked with our man freely, and, after staying at Murfreesborough 
two or three days and riding and walking all about in the most innocent and 
unconcerned manner, he Avas again sent back to Nashville to " fool that slow 
Dutchman, Rosecrans," as one of the rebel officers remarked. Of the im- 
portance of the report now brought to the " slow Dutchman" we need not 
state further than that it contributed its due Aveight to a decision fraught 
with tremendous consequences to the army and to the country. Marching- 
orders were soon after issued for the advance of the Arm}- of the Cumber- 
land upon Murfreesborough. 

Now commenced a period of excessive labor and peril for the nameless 
spy. Generals Rosecrans and Bragg each wanted instant and constant 
information as the armies approached. The minutise of this man's work 
for four or five days we need not stop to relate: it is easily imagined. 
Within that time he entered the rebel lines and returned three times. He 
gave the outline of Bragg's line of battle, a close estimate of his force, an 
accurate account of his artillery and his earthworks, the movements of 
the rebel wagon and railroad trains, &c. &c. He was very earnest in 
assuring Rosecrans that Bragg intended to give severe battle with supe- 
rior numbers. 

This information proved true in all essentials, and its value to the country 
was inestimable. We had other spies piercing the rebel lines at this time, 
but they did not enjoy the facilities possessed by the nameless one. Almost 
with anguish did he exclaim against himself, in the presence of the author, 
for the severe manner in which he was deceiving the rebel general and 
involving the lives of his thousands of brave but deluded followers. 

After the first great battle the work of such a spy is ended, or, rather, 
it ceases when the shock of arms comes on. Thenceforth the armies are 
moved upon the instant, as circumstances may require. Our man, who 
during the four days had been almost incessantly in the saddle, or with 
his ears and eyes painfully observant while in the camps, took leave of our 
army upon the battle-field, and retired to a place of rest. 

One incident occurred during his last visit to Bragg which is worthy of 
mention. That general took alarm in consequence of his report, and at 
once started a special messenger to General John H. Morgan— who was then 
absent with his cavalry in Kentuckv to destroy Rosecrans's railroad-com- 

40 



626 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

munications (in -which Morgan succeeded) — to return instantly with his 
command by forced marches to Murfreesborough. That same night our 
man reported this fact to the Federal commander, described the messenger 
and what route he would take, &c. The information was telegraphed at 
once to Nashville, Gallatin, and Bowling Green, and a force was sent from 
each of those posts to intercept the messenger. They failed to apprehend 
him, — which, however, proved of no consequence, as the battles of Stone 
River were fought and Bragg was on his retreat from Murfreesborough by 
the time Morgan could have received the orders. 

Our spy was a brave man : yet during the last three days of his service 
he was most sensible of its peril. To pass between hostile lines in the 
lone hours of the night, — for he did not wait for daylight, — to be halted by 
guerrillas and scouts and pickets, with guns aimed at him, and, finally, 
to meet and satisfy the anxious, keen-eyed, heart-searching rebel officers 
as well as our own, was a mental as well as physical demand that could 
not long be sustained. While proceeding upon his last expedition, the 
author met the nameless one upon a by-road. We halted our horses, drew 
near, and conversed a few seconds in private, while our attendants and 
companions moved on. He was greatly exhausted and soiled in appear- 
ance, — his clothing having been rained upon and splashed by muddy water, 
caused by hard riding, and which had dried upon him. He said he was 
about to try it once more, and, though he had been so often and so success- 
fully, yet he feared detection and its sure result, the bullet or the halter. 
He had been unable, amid the hurry and excitement, to make some final 
disposition of his affairs. He gave us a last message to send to his wife 
and children in case it became necessary ; and he also desired a promise — 
most freely given — that we would attend to the settlement of his account 
with our general for services recently rendered. Thus concluding, he 
wrung our hand most earnestly, and, putting spurs to his fresh and spirited 
animal, dashed off upon his mission. Twenty hours afterwards we were 
relieved of our anxious forebodings by his safe and successful return. We 
have stated the price paid him for his labors : it was well earned, and to 
our cause was a most profitable investment. 



Nashville as a Type of the Eebellion, 

The disorders which afflict a nation are most perceptible in a large city. 
Congregated iniquity there spawns its mass of corruption, to fatten, fester, 
and decay, and to reproduce itself in succeeding generations. The polluting 
tide floods in, increasing wave upon wave, threatening society with its 
utter contamination, and almost denying an expectation or hope that more 
of good than evil can emanate from such a Nazareth. 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OP THE REBELLION. 627 

Reasonable fears are entertained, by many citizens, that, in some of the 
larger cities of the United States, virtue and religion have lost their power 
as controlling political forces,— that the true principles of government, upon 
which alone a republic can be founded and maintained, are displaced by 
those resulting from passion and vice,— and that it is already written that 
Rome and her degenerate people, who were the sport and the prey of party 
leaders and were lost two thousand years ago, will find a parallel in the 
cities of the great Republic of the nineteenth century. But, happily, our 
country is not all Rome. Thk people, who dwell in mountain, valley, and 
plain, are yet pure ; and through them the reigning vices of the city stews 
are yet controlled and controllable. And when the present purification by 
fire and the sword shall be complete, these rural virtues, shinino- all the 
brighter, will blazon forth to the world, still higher and grander evidencea 
of man's capability of self-government. 

The present rebellion was hatched in the cities of the South, by her par* 
tisan leaders. From these centres of political influence there were sent 
forth false doctrines during many years, intended as firebrands to enkindle 
a terrible conflagration in " the Southern heart." To the Southern leaders 
political power and place — only truly honorable when unsolicited — became 
an all-absorbing passion. The natural growth of the free States, and the 
consequent loss of political ascendency to the hitherto dominant South, dis- 
turbed her politicians in their present desires and alarmed them respecting 
the future : hence their rebellion, and their appeal to that " last argument 
of kings," ultima ratio regum, — the musket and the sword. 

In the Revolution of '76 the loyal people of our country sprang alike to 
arms and achieved their independence as a republic. The rebellion of 1861 
culminated in Southern cities, — among the wealthy, the aristocratic, and the 
ambitious. It first broke forth at a point where the seeds of social dissolu- 
tion of the republic had taken earliest and deepest root. The rural popula- 
tion of the Southern States were not prepared for such a step : they held 
back, appalled at the course of the leaders and their mobs in Charleston, 
New Orleans, Mobile, and Nashville. By means and appliances the most 
artful and the most violent, — which will fully test the patience and research 
of the future historian to solve and portray, — the reluctant and protesting 
rural population of the South, urged with all the mock philosophy of an 
Antony, watched with the myriad prying eyes of an Argus, and forced as 
by the hundred bloody hands of a Briareua, were launched into a hapless 
sea of rebellion ; and thus were a great, happy, prosperous people seduced 
into a causeless and destroying civil war. 

We write of Nashville, — the gem and the boast of Tennessee,— the West- 
ern queen of the vaunted Southern Confederacy,— where centred the wealth, 
the aristocratic refinement, the talent, and the political influence of the 
State. We charge it boldly upon that city that, by the grandest sublima- 
tion of political finesse upon the part of her party leaders, rebellion was 
inaugurated in old Tennessee,— the most populous and fertile and, as 
regards war-ma^maZ, the most valuable of all the slave States. For this 



028 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

reason have we chosen Nashville as a text for this chapter ; for truly her 
past history and position, contrasted with her present prostrate condition, 
present her as a memorable and pitiable type of the pending rebellion. 
The thousands of desecrated and burning homes of Tennessee are reflected 
from her domes, and the countless graves of her lost and dishonored sons 
have no monument save the profaned temples of this proud and ruined city. 

Previous to 1861, Nashville was one of the most beautiful, gay, and pros- 
perous cities of the Union. Her inhabitants numbered thirty thousand, 
and were rapidly increasing. She was the wealthiest place of her class in 
the country. Her public buildings and private edifices were of the grand- 
est and most costly character. The State Capitol rose from a rock one 
hundred and seventy-five feet above the Cumberland River, — is said to be 
the finest structure of its kind in America, and cost over a million of 
dollars. Church-edifices reared their tall spires upon every hand. An ex- 
tensive State penitentiary, a medical college with three hundred students, 
and a university, styled the "Western Military Institute" and boasting of 
three hundred scholars, were here located. At one period twelve newspa- 
pers were published in this city, — five of them being dailies. She possessed 
a banking-capital of $5,181,000. Her suspension bridge, spanning the Cum- 
berland River, was a glory in architecture and popular estimation, erected 
at a cost of upwards of $100,000. Her public water and gas works were 
ample, and built at great expense ; and she boasted of eight elegant stone 
(Macadam) turnpikes leading to the interior in various directions and to 
adjoining States. At her feet was poured the traffic from three extensive 
railroad-thoroughfares, which extended hundreds of miles to Alabama, to 
Georgia, and East Tennessee, and through Kentucky to Louisville. She 
lay at the head of navigation of the Cumberland River, — a fine boating- 
stream during two-thirds of the year and navigable for small craft the year 
round. Her merchants controlled a vast cotton and tobacco trade, and 
supplied the Southern interior, hundreds of miles in extent, with dry-goods, 
hardware, and the thousand articles o!" American and foreign manufacture. 
Her business streets were lined with monster mercantile concerns, and her 
suburbs were resplendent with beautiful cottages and almost palatial man- 
sions, and delightful groves of aged forest-trees. A visitor to this fair city 
previous to the rebellion, when viewing all that we have just described, 
and witnessing in addition the fleet of steamers at the levee, the rush of 
business upon the streets, and the sweeping by of dashing carriages and 
gayly-arrayed riding-parties mounted on blooded horses, might safely con- 
clude that Nashville was one of the favored cities of the world. 

The boom of the cannon that first opened upon Sumter proved the funeral 
knell of all this peace and happiness. Intoxicated with prosperity, its 
votaries abandoned the principles of government which alone had created 
and secured it. Spoiled by a pernicious social system, they launched forth 
upon an ocean of false doctrines which were repudiated by all civilized 
nations. The story of the political storms in Tennessee, — of the persistent 
efforts of the Nashville secession leaders, — of the several votes forced upon 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 629 

the people before secession could be invested with a legal semblaace,— of the 
distrust and reluctance of the masses,— we need not pause to relate : it la 
history. 

Once fully committed to the rebellion, the rebel leaders at Richmond 
deigned to throw some sops to their Western "metropolis," and extensive 
military depots were created, shops and foundries were set in motion, 
cannon were cast, gunboats were put in process of construction, percussion- 
caps, soldiers' clothing, &c. were manufactured by the million, and thousands 
of hogs were packed for the use of the Confederate armies. Verily, it was 
asserted that Nashville would speedily eclipse Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. 
Louis, — that her prospects were excellent for becoming, in fact, the capital 
of the great Southern Confederation. 

Thus for a season affairs went on swimmingly in Nashville, and until the 
fall of Fort Donelson occurred. Up to that period, almost, there had existed 
a strong Union element in the city ; but the secessionists had taken measures 
to root it out effectually, the prominent Union men being driven from their 
homes to the North. A " vigilance committee" had been formed, its avowed 
object being to "spot" every adherent to the old Government, and to notify 
him to take the oath of allegiance to rebellion, to enter its ranks as a 
soldier, or contribute visibly and liberally to its support, or to choose the 
alternative, banishment from the place. Such a notice was served upon 
the venerable patriot. Judge Catron, of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, who was a resident of that city. He scornfully cast the dust of the 
rebellious city from his feet, and left his home and property to their fate. 
Upon the evening of the day preceding the surrender of Fort Donelson, the 
rebel citizens of Nashville held high carnival. They met in a public place, 
indulged in wild, vociferous speechification and shouts, and improvised a 
torchlight procession, carrying secession flags, emblems, and transparencies, 
bearing aloft huge, rough iron pikes, — which latter invention signified utter 
demolition of the invading Yankees. The orgies were under the manage- 
ment of little Dick Cheatham, the mayor of the city. Speeches were made 
of an extravagant character, — a liberal portion of them being devoted to 
denunciation of the Unionists of that city and State. 

"Yes," quoth Cheatham, "drive 'em out from among us. Let me deal 
with these traitors, and I will hang them first and try them afterwards !" 

But there was a fate in store for the rebels of Nashville of which they 
little dreamed. Up to the time above mentioned, all had gone well at 
Donelson. Hourly reports came up that the Federal army was kept at bay 
and their gunboats were repulsed. Steamers were plying busily between 
the city and the fort, forwarding supplies and reinforcements. The weather 
was extremely inclement, the late snows and rain-storms of winter being at 
hand, and the men of both armies were suffering almost incredible hard- 
ships, standing ankle-deep in the frozen slush and mud of the trenches. 
During the week previous, the ladles of Nashville, with a devotion worthy 
vf a better cause, had loaded a steamboat with carpets taken from their 
£;ors, and spare bedding and warm clothing of all kinds, for their suffering 
L 



630 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

soldiers. Tpon the surrender these carpets were found cut into strips, with 
a hole in the centre, hanging over the shoulders of the half-frozen rebel 
soldiers. 

The Sabbath of February 16, 1862, is an epoch in the history of Nash- 
ville and of Tennessee. Until ten o'clock that morning all was well with 
the rebellion. The last boat up from Donelson, arriving several hours pre- 
vious, reported still stronger evidences of the defeat of the Federals. At 
the usual hour the church-bells of the city called its people forth to public 
worship. It was a beautiful Sabbath morning, bright sunshine succeeding 
many days of winter darkness and storm, and there was a general attend- 
ance. The clergy of Nashville had offered their prayers for the rebellion, — 
for they were wild secessionists to a man, — and had taken their texts, when, 
lo ! a hum of excitement and commotion began to be manifest In the streets. 
Soon notices were handed in at the doors and were carried to the sacred 
desks. The ministers paused, and clutched eagerly at what they supposed 
was welcome intelligence. They read it aloud with aslien cheek and falter- 
ing tongue. Donelson had surrendered ! — the Confederate army was cap- 
tured ! — the Federal gunboats were now on their way up the river to destroy 
the city ! 

The people rushed from the churches, to find confusion and dismay visible 
in the streets upon every hand. There was now a'gathering-up of valuables 
and a pressing of teams of every description. Wagons, carts, drays, and 
every animal that could be found were at once put in requisition. The city 
authorities were palsied. The rebsl army stores were opened, and the citi- 
zens urged to aid in removing the vast amounts of pork, sugar, &c. to the 
railroad depot and to the interior. But the people had their personal safety 
nearest at heart, and the invitation was disregarded. A crowd of the poorer 
classes swarmed around the commissary and quartermaster depots, and 
began an indiscriminate appropriation of hams, shoulders, sugar, clothing, 
and goods of every description. The wholesale stores, and even dry-goods 
and silk houses, were burst open, or purposely thrown open, and whole 
bolts of cloth, entire pieces of costly fabrics, arms-full of boots and shoes, 
and rolls of new carpeting, were thrown pell-mell Into the street, or lay 
loose upon the floors and walks, awaiting the disposal of the mob. Squads 
of soldiers assailed the beautiful suspension bridge with axes, saws, and 
cold chisels, and, after hours of cursing and exertion, succeeded In utterly 
destroying it. The elegant railroad-bridge was given to the flames. At 
the State-House were to be seen gangs of excited men In shirt-sleeves, rush- 
ing out with the archives and other valuable public property and tossing 
them loosely into wagons, to be carried to the Chattanooga depot for Instant 
shipment to the South. Ere long the hegira of Nashville secesslonism was 
under full headway. Families were hurried off in every possible manner, 
the turnpikes leading southward being lined with the fugitives. By sunset 
all had gone who could go ; and these kept going all night, many of them 
not stopping until they reached Shelbyvllle, Fayetteville, and even Hunts- 
vllle, Alabama, 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 631 

This frantic evacuation was in character with the preceding features of 
the rebellion, — as wild and as causeless. Vast amounts of property were 
needlessly destroyed, and the boastful secessionists who had so valiantly 
carried the pikes in procession the night previous, and had cheered at the 
spectacle, had shown the woi'ld that their courage was of words rather 
than of deeds. No gunboats came up the river; and not until a full 
week afterwards — the following Sabbath — did the Federal army arrive 
opposite Nashville. The rebels thus had ample time to move off their stores 
and goods. Lest this account of the rebel flight from Nashville be con- 
sidered overdrawn, we insert the following description of the event fi*om a 
rebel source, — Pollard's " Southern History of the War," published at Rich- 
mond, Virginia, 18G2. 

" The fall of Fort Donelson developed the crisis in the West, which had 
long existed. The evacuation of Bowling Green had become imperatively 
necessary, and was ordered before and executed while the battle was being 
fought at Donelson. General Johnstim awaited the event opposite Nash- 
ville. The result of the conflict each day was announced as favorable. At 
midnight on the 15th of February, General Johnston received news of a 
glorious victory, — at dawn, of a defeat. 

" The l)low was most disastrous. It involved the surrender of Nashville, 
which was Incapalile of defence from its position, and was threatened not 
only by the enemy's ascent of the Cumberland, but by the advance of his 
forces from Bowling Green. Not mure than eleven thousand effective men 
had been left under General Johnston's command to oppose a column of 
General Buell of not less than forty tl\ousand troops, wliije the army from 
Fort Donelson, with the gunboats and transports, had it in their power to 
ascend the Cumberland, so as to intercept all communication with the 
South. No alternative was left but to evacuate Nashville or sacrifice the 
army. 

" The evacuation of Nashville was attended by scenes of panic and dis- 
tress on the part of the population unparalleled in the annals of any 
American city. The excitement was intensified by the action of the 
authorities. Governor Harris mounted a horse and galloped through the 
streets, proclaiming to everybody the news that Donelson had fallen, — that 
the enemy were coming and might be expected hourly, and that all who 
wished to leave had better do so at once. He next hastily convened the 
Legislature, adjourned it to Memphis, and, with the legislators and the 
State archives, left the town, 

" An earthquake could not have shocked the city more. The congre- 
gations at the churches were broken up in confusion and dismay ; women 
and children rushed into the streets, wailing with terror; trunks were 
thrown from three-story windows in the haste of the fugitives ; and thou- 
sands hastened to leave their l)eautiful city in the midst of the most dis- 
tressing- scenes of terror and confusion, and of plunder by the mob. 

"General Johnston had moved the main body of his command to Mur- 
froesborou<^^h,— a rear-guard being left in Nashville under General tloyd, 
who had arrived from Donelson, to secure the stores and provisions. In 
the first wild excitement of the panic, the store-houses had been thrown 
open to the poor. They were besieged by a mob ravenous for spoils, and 
who had to be dispersed from the commissariat by jets oi water trom a 
steam fire-engine. Women and children, even, were seen scudding through 
the streets under loads of greasy pork, which they had taken as prizes from 
the store-houses. It is believed that hundreds of families, among the lower 



632 ARMY POLICE RECOftD. 

orders of the population, secured and secreted Government stores enough to 
opeji respectable groceries. It was with the greatest ditiiculty that General 
Floyd could restore order and get his martial law into any thing like an 
etFective system. Blacks and whites had to be chased and captured and 
forced to help the movement of Government stores. One man, who, after a 
long chase, was captured, oifered fight, and was in consequence shot and 
hadly wounded. Not less than one million of dollars in stores was lost 
through the acts of the cowai'dly and ravenous mob of Nashville. General 
Floyd and Colonel Forrest exhibited extraordinary energy and efficiency in 
getting off Government stores. Colonel Forrest remained in the city about 
twenty-four hours, with only forty men, after the arrival of the enemy at 
Edgefield. These ofiicers were assisted by the voluntary' eiforts of several 
patriotic citizens of Nashville, who rendered them great assistance. 

" These shameful scenes, enacted in the evacuation of Nashville, were 
nothing more thau the disgusting exhibitions of any mob brutalized by its 
fears or excited by rapine. At any rate, the city speedily repaired the 
injury done its I'f'putation by a temporarj^ panic, in the spirit of defiance 
that its best citizens, and especially its ladies, offered to the enemy. We 
discover, in fact, the most abundant evidence in the Northern newspapers 
that the Federals did not find the ' Union' sentiment that they expected to 
meet with in the capital of Tennessee, and that, if there were any indications 
whatever of such sentiment, they were ' found only among the mechanics 
and laboring-classes of the city.' The merchants -and business-men of Nash- 
ville, as a class, showed a firm, unwavering, and loyal attachment to the 
cause of the South. The ladies gave instances of patriotism that were noble 
testimonies to their sex. They refused the visits of Federal oificers, and 
disdained their recognition ; they collected a fund of money for the espe- 
cial purpose of contributing to the needs of our prisoners ; and, says a 
recipient of the bounty of these noble women, as soon as a Confederate 
prisoner was paroled and passed into' the next room, he found pressed in his 
hands there a sum of money given him by the ladies of Nashville. Many 
of the most respectable of the people had been constrained to leave their 
homes rather than endure the presence of the enemy. The streets, Avhich, 
to confirm the predictions of Northern newspapers of the welcomes that 
awaited the ' Union' army in the South, should have been gay and decorated, 
presented to the enemy nothing but sad and gloomy aspects. "Whole rows 
of houses, which but a short while ago were occupied by families of wealth 
and respectability, surrounded by all the circumstances that make homes 
happy and prosperous, stood vacant, and the gaze of the passer-l)y was met, 
instead of, as in former days, with fine tapestry window-curtains and neatly 
polished marble stepa with panes of dust-dimmed glass." 

After a day or two, the valorous rebel citizens recovered from their fright, 
began to realize the value and comforts of home, and commenced their 
return to the city. During the entire week after the flight, Mayor Cheatham 
was anxiously casting a)x)ut for some appearing Federal force, to whom he 
could perform the farce of a formal surrender of the city. Upon the suc- 
ceeding Sabbath, the Federal army appeared across the river, and Cheatham 
and one or two other city dignitaries crossed in " a dug-out," and, in terms 
and manner very different from the week before, he tendered the submission 
of the helpless and prostrate city. 

As is related by the Southern historian above quotetl, the Federal army 
met with a chilling reception upon its entering Nashville. The streets wero 
almost deserted ; the stores and shops were entirely closed; there was noi a 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OP THE REBELLION. 633 

hotel open. Where but a few days before rebel flags had waved de- 
fiantly upon hundreds of house-tops, now not one could be seen to greet 
the presence of national Government. If there were a few Unionists 
present, they were as yet too greatly cowed, and the Federal power was 
as yet too recently asserted, to permit a demonstration in the midst of such 
universal hatred. 

Matters thus remained during Buell's campaign in the South. Upon his 
retreat to Kentucky in pursuit of Bragg, the rebel citizens of Nashville 
were greatly emboldened. And when Bragg again retreated from Kentucky 
and moved up to Murfreesborough, they were still confident of his victory 
over the Federal forces ; for up to this time they had not lost confidence in 
the ultimate success of the rebel armies and leaders. But when General 
Rosecrans entered Nashville with his army, matters began to wear a differ- 
ent aspect. Other causes also contributed to this result. New Orleans was 
conquered and firmly held ; the national Government was beginning to put 
forth its power in earnestness, — its vast armies and fleets assailing the 
rebels upon every quarter ; and we had commenced undermining them in 
their most vital point, by operating against them with their slaves. The 
vast fortifications now being erected by the Federals around the city 
assured them that they were conquered; and the influence of all this 
upon such a people was plainly visible. Still they clung feebly to hope, 
until after the final defeat of Bragg before Murfreesborough. 

Oh, the anxiety, the agony, of the rebellious people of Nashville during 
that week of battle ! Their fathers, brothers, and sons were mingling in 
that conflict. Upon its result hung the issue of their cause. The boldest 
of the men gathered in knots at their door-steps to discuss the probabilities, 
while the women met in parlor groups, prepared lint and bandages, and 
eagerly hoped for good tidings. When the report of the first day of heavy 
battle came in, announcing the defeat of Rosecrans's right wing, there was 
intense joy and renewed hope in many a Nashville home. Rebels clustered 
in the streets and flitted about their houses during all that eventful New 
Year night. The next day they still had faith and hope ; and, as several 
hundred rebel prisoners, taken in battle, were marched through the city to 
the State-House, smiles and the waving of handkerchiefs greeted their 
passage up the streets. The bitter truth came at last,— too bitter for ready 
belief. Its realization was the death-knell of their hopes. From that day 
to the present the leading rebels of Nashville and of all Tennessee have 
despaired, and, as time has rolled away, they have gradually become more 
disheartened in their own bad cause and more ready and desirous to make 
their peace with the Federal Government. 

The "police record of the Army of the Cumberland is fraught with inte- 
resting items pertaining to the rebel citizens of Nashville. That record is 
before us ; and it is due- to history, to the cause of the Union, to our army, 
and to the memory of the two thousand of our brave Northmen who laid 
down their lives upon the battle-fields of Stone River, that this people, who 
have been mainly instrumental in bringing on the war in Tennessee, should 



634 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

now lio held responsibxe to public opinion and to the law of the land for 
their outrageous " deeds done in the body." 

Andrew Ewing was one of the most prominent rebels of Tennessee. He 
was a lawyer and a politician, — a man of notoriety and influence. He lived 
upon a beautiful place in the suburbs of Nashville, the mansion standing 
amid a grove of noble forest oaks and hickories which were valuable beyond 
price. He was reputed to be worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
most of which he inherited from his father. He was one of the first and 
wildest of secessionists. The Union had been a good thing for Andrew, and 
for his father, and for his father's father. He was rich and influential, lived in 
a prospering country, and was threatened by no violence, present or prospect- 
ive. He turned rebel solely to be Pi-esident of the rebels, or for something of 
that sort. At least we can conceive of no other possible reason. Ewing was 
severe upon Union men before the fall of Fort Donelson. He walked at the 
head of the torchlight procession at Nashville which we have referred to above ; 
he made a speech to the mob during that evening, urging that every Union 
man be " spotted" and be forced to join them or to leave. He carried a 
pike in that procession. He fled with his family from Nashville during the 
general panic and evacuation, and has since abode in the far South. His 
son is in the rebel army. He was with Forrest's men when they attacked 
Nashville last fall and were repulsed by General Negley. The day pre- 
vious to that event, he made a speech in Franklin, twenty miles below, in 
which he declared the true policy to be to attack the city, and, if necessary, 
"to make Nashville ash-ville." During that battle he stood where he could 
witness the cannon firing about his home and the premises of his neighbors. 
Our troops found his great house deserted, and made use of it all winter. 
His beautiful grove has been felled for fortification-timber and fuel, — not a 
shade-tree left standing upon the place. Ewing is ruined. Truly, his case 
may be cited as a faithful type of the results of this rebellion. 

John Overton, living four miles south of Nashville, on the Franklin pike, 
is noted upon the police records as one of the rank, original secessionists cf 
Nashville. He is said to be the richest man in Tennessee, — worth five mil- 
lions of dollars. He has given, or boasted of having given, a large sum of 
money to aid the Southern cause. He was at the battle of Shiloh, acting as 
an adviser and sympathizer. His only grown son is in the rebel army. 
The immense new hotel at Nashville, covering a block of ground, was his 
project, the citizens also contributing one hundred thousand dollars to aid in 
its erection. The walls were laid, and the roof put on, when Overton turned 
his attention to rebellion, and the work stopped. He ran off at the time of 
the general "skedaddle," and is now a fugitive. The great hotel has been 
used for military barracks and hospital purposes. He was not a notable 
man at all, save as a money-jug ; and that trait will not constitute him a 
specialty hereafter, we apprehend. 

The records state that John M. Bass was another very active leader in 
the Tennessee rebellion. He lived in a fine mansion on Church Street, 
Nashville, — became uneasy at the proximity of Yankee >ayonets before the 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OE THE REBELLION. 635 

fall of Donelson, and went to Louisiana and Arkansas to look after his 
plantations. Ilis wealth is reputed at a million of dollars. His eldest son, 
a Dr. Bass, was killed, while among a guerrilla-band, bj our troops under 
General Negley. Bass is a ruined man. A single grown-up daughter, and 
one or two house-servants, have had charge of his house, &c., and have not 
as yet been disturbed, we presume. 

Col. J. A. S. Acklin, a hearty secessionist, wealthy, and residing on a 
most gaudy, showy place near Nashville, was a lawyer from Huntsville, 
Alabama. He married a widow Franklin, whose first husband was im- 
mensely wealthy. She had two children by her former marriage, to whom 
the property was mainly devised. They both died, and the property de- 
scends to the second tier of children. The police record contains a descrip- 
tion of Acklin's premises ; for they are rather a specialty in the way of 
extravagance. The place is situated two miles out from the city, and com- 
prises about one hundred acx'es of land. His buildings are gothic-ified and 
starched and bedizened to perfection. Serpentine walks, shrubbery, and 
all of that sort of thing, abound in great quantity and profusion. A tower, 
one hundred and five feet high, is built near a spring a fourth of a mile 
distant from the buildings, and a steam-engine within its base forces water 
to its top, whence it is piped in every direction over the grounds. The 
improvements upon this place, such as the buildings, statuary, walls, &c., 
cost over a quarter of a million of dollars. Looking over upon it from ad- 
jacent high grounds, the white marble fountains, emblems, and statues 
cause the place to resemble somewhat a fashionable first-class cemetery. 
The Acklin place exhibits a vast outlay of money, and but little artistic 
skill in its expenditure. Its proprietor, not satisfied with all this wealth, 
must needs dabble in secession ; and he, too, is off with the rebel army. 
His wife, however, well fills his place, says our report, so far as rebellion 
sympathies and hate can extend. With such a record of J. A. S. Acklin, 
the author simply puts the question to the country, what is to be done ? 

General Hardin is one of the notable rebel citizens of Nashville, pos- 
sessing great wealth and descending from an old and influential family. 
He was an ardent, original secessionist. The old Government was quite too 
oppressive upon him to be longer content. Let us endeavor to ascertain the 
particular oj^pression under which this man groaned. He lived six miles 
west from the city, on the Hardin pike. He had a little farm of some five 
thousand acres. His mansion and all its appurtenances would, in many re- 
spects, vie with those of the old manorial estates of the English barons. His 
buildings were very extensive, — great barns, and outlying tenements for his 
tenants and his slaves. He was reputed to be worth two and a half millions 
of dollars. He was not only a millionnaire : he was also a great stock foncier 
and breeder. His stables were filled with the most beautiful and valuable 
horses and horned cattle, many of them imported. Ho kept two or three 
celebrated blooded stallions. A herd of elegant deer tossed their antlers in 
his park, unmolested, and a herd of buffalo— the genuine article, from the 
plains of the far West—bellowed and butted over his great pastures in half- 



636 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

civilized mood. A flcjck of imported Cashmere goats were also hero upon 
exhibition, — possibly divers other quadrupeds, too numerous to mention, — 
and also barn-yard fowls of all the ordinary and fanciful varieties. Added 
to all this, Hardin was a man of social note : he was a live general. Hap- 
pily, too, he had acquired the title without wading through any extensive 
ocean of blood. How he became a general is immaterial ; and we must pass 
on. As he was a judge of horse-flesh and of short-horns, he usually sat in 
the judge's stand at the prominent races ; and his knowing pinch of a prize 
steer's rib, or rump, at a country fair, was highly prized. Last, but certainly 
not least, the general has an interesting family of wife and daughters, who 
are highly esteemed by all, and against whom the police records contain not 
one word of reproach. 

Such being the social and the pecuniary status of General Hardin, the 
reader will inquire where comes in the unbearable oppression which drove 
such a man into rebellion. We cannot explain. Our records, usually 
so suggestive, are here silent, and the hiatus must pass with the history 
into the womb of time. All we can say upon this head is soon said. 
Hardin had wealth and family position, — which latter means something 
among the Southern aristocracy, — but he was not eminently a man of 
brains, and had no reputation as a speaker or writer. His ideas hardly 
rose above the eaves of his stables, and his tastes were upon a level with 
the roll of his grazing-lands. He had just suflicient ability to conceive 
tliat horses and negroes are the stimmum bonutn of this life, and that a 
separate and distinct Southern Confederacy Avas the best form of government 
for rich men of his ilk. Hence, we repeat, he was an original secessionist, 
one who upheld the firing upon Fort Sumter, and gloried in the pluck of 
the little man in large leathers, South Carolina. When the secession of 
Tennessee was advocated, he was quite conspicuous, but principally as a 
tool of the Ewings, Isham Harris, and others ; and he gave — at least it was 
so reported at the time, for political effect — half a million of dollars to aid 
that cause. 

General Hardin was bitterly opposed to the North from education, aristo- 
cratic affinities, and supposed personal interests. Formerly he was in the 
habit of travelling to the North in the summer-season on trips of pleasure. 
A circumstance occurred during one of these excursions which, we are 
assured by Nashville citizens, had a strong tendency to further embitter 
Hardin's mind against Northern institutions. Some years ago he visited 
Cape ]\Iay, a notable sea-shore rendezvous of the fashionables of our country. 
He was accompanied hy the two young McGavocks, his nephews, scions of 
rich Tennessee stock, and a group of ladies. The McGavocks had a diffi- 
culty with the colored servants at the Cape, and a regular pitched battle 
ensued, we believe, which resulted in the triumph of the negroes, the dis- 
comfited Southrons retiring from the field in disorder. Hardin remembered 
the affront, and from that time was more than ever opposed to the " nigger- 
equality" doctrines of the North. 

When the Federal troops entered Nashville, General Hardin did not 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 637 

evacuate. He was summoned before the military authorities, and, y^'uh 
General Barrovr, was sent to Fort Mackinaw, Lake Michigan, where he 
remained as a prisoner of war from the 6th day of April until about the last 
of September, 1862, when he was released upon a bond of twenty thousand 
dollars to appear and answer before the United States District Court of 
Tennessee to the charge of treason, and the trial is still in abeyance. We 
must briefly conclude with the statement that civil war has well performed 
its mournful task in the case of Hardin. A portion of our army was quar- 
tered on or near his place during many weeks. There was grand hunting 
after those deer and buffalo. The goats were ruthlessly taken " in the wool." 
The stables were confiscated, — what were left of the stud, the rebels having 
taken the best of the serviceable blooded nags. Hundreds of tons of his 
hay and thousands of bushels of his grain were hauled into our camps. Miles 
of his fencing were burned. His men negroes kept company with his de- 
parted stock. We recollect the trouble the general had concerning his old 
imported gray stallion : it was taken — we might as well say stolen — from 
him three or four times. The general commanding had given him a pro- 
tection document, and the army police had upon several occasions dis- 
covered and restored the noble animal, which was really fit for breeding- 
purposes only. The last time the old horse was seized he was found in a 
solitary place, a forest, where he had been placed for security. Some negroes 
reported the fact to a squad of Federal cavalry, and the commander of the 
latter, unaware of th& peculiar circumstances attending the ownership, 
gobbled the animal forthwith. Hai'din once more visits head-quarters, then 
at Murfreesborough, finds his horse, upon which is mounted a Federal officer 
of the first degree, and the latter, to his intense disgust, is compelled to 
surrender the beast. This account of General Hardin is gathered from 
many sources, and may be incorrect in minor points. But it portrays the 
general character and position of the man ; and that is the sole aim of the 
author. May we not safely conclude this sketch by classing its subject, after 
contrasting his former prosperity with his present misfortunes, as another 
eminent type of the rebellion ? 

General Washington Barrow, the companion of Hardin in his imprison- 
ment at the North, was also a prominent citizen of Nashville, or, rather, he 
resided at Edgefield, on the opposite side of the river. He was a member 
of the rebel State Senate. His wife's father was a very rich man. He gave 
no bond, but was finally paroled from prison and exchanged, and has since 
remained in rebeldom. A few weeks since a party of Tennessee rebel poli- 
ticians met at Winchester, where was located a portion of General Bragg's 
army, and performed the farce of a State Convention ; and then and there 
a i effort was made to nominate Gen. Barrow as a candidate for Governor. 
Since then Bragg's army has been driven entirely from the State, excepting 
a little nook at Chattanooga ; and how to make his " calling and election 
sure" must be a puzzler indeed to the secession candidate, as none but Union 
candidates and Union voters will ever again be tolerated in the old Mountam 
State. 



638 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

Richard Cheatham, Esq., Mayor, &c. of the rebel city of Nashville, was 
a very rabid secessionist. He was not wealthy, nor was he a man of any 
especial talent. A few years since he was a dealer at faro-tables, and was 
one of the fast, rattling young men of the day, who occasionally are thrown 
to the surface by the rolling waves of violent times. Cheatham's ability 
was about equal to the task of hounding down Union men, of managing 
vigilance committees, and of the superintendence of torchlight processions. 
The patriotism, or rebellsm, or call It what you will, of such men, rarely 
carries them up to the cannon's mouth, or to a severe death in that " last 
ditch." He has taken excellent care of his Individual bacon, while hun- 
dreds of the poor youth of Tennessee, goaded on by his and kindred efforts, 
now fill unknown graves. Since the battle of Stone River and the aban- 
donment of rebel hopes, Cheatham has become quite moderate and affable, 
and has even ventured slightly into Federal army contracts, we hear It 
asserted. Good for' Richard! He will make just as good a Union man as 
he was a bad rebel ; for circumstances control such men. Major-General 
Cheatham, of the rebel army. Is his cousin. 

Dempsey Weaver, president of the Planters' Bank, wealthy and influential, 
resides upon an elegant pla.ce five miles south of Nashville, near the State 
Lunatic Asylum. He was an original secessionist. Persons coming into 
his bonk during the few bright days of the rebellion would hear his earnest 
and honeyed argument, which ran thus: — "The true policy of the South 
is to set up for herself. At any rate, now that she has done bo, Tennessee 
must go with her. As for our city, it will be the making of us. The North 
will get no more of our cotton and tobacco : we will ship from here direct 
to Europe via New Orleans, with free trade as our great lever. Nashville 
stands by far the best chance of being the capital of the Confederacy, in 
which case our real* estate will advance In value two hundred per cent. In 
any event, we will eclipse Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, If Missouri 
don't come In with ^s, and thus we will knock those cities cold as a wedge." 
Mr. Weaver was a fair, earnest secessionist, really one of the most respect- 
able and dangerous In the South. He has not been damaged greatly by the 
war as yet, we believe ; and what will be done In his case is Involved In 
the great question of the final adjustment of the rebellion. That such 
cool, clear, cautious men as Weaver will entirely escape the calamities 
which he and his class have been greatly instrumental In bringing upon the 
thousands of ruined families of Tennessee, is too monatrous an Idea to be 
entertained. 

John KIrkman, Esq., of the Union Bank, Nashville, also occupies a page 
in the police record of the Army of the Cumberland. He was rich, Influ- 
ential, and lived in the finest style. He was a secessionist, cautious, but of" 
unquestionable fulness and ripeness. His only son was in the rebel army, 
and was killed at the last battle of Fort Donelson. Like Weaver, Mr^ 
KIrkman was a secessionist in a financial point of view. He argued in this 
wise : — " The wealth of the South is In cotton. We cannot produce cotton 
without slaves. The North Is growing ahead of us, and threatens slaveiy 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 639 

With extermination, and the only safety of the South is a separate govern- 
ment and her taking her half of all the new territory," He opined, with 
"Weaver, that Nashville would prove tlie Western star of the Southern 
Confederacy. Last winter he was called upon by our army officials to ex- 
plain certain transactions of his bank which M'ere deemed suspicious. ' The 
Nashville banks were then issuing large amounts of new paper money to 
the people and to the army. Some of it was got up in " greenback" style. 
The new notes were of small denominations, — one and two dollar bills. For 
banks to be issuing new money at such a time, when it was notorious that 
they had not a dollar of gold in their vaults to redeem with, was a circum- 
stance that demanded attention. Mr. Kirkman explained that these banks 
were simply issuing this small-bill money for public convenience, they 
retiring in its place, and to its precise extent, bills of large amounts, as 
twenty, fifty, and one hundred dollar notes. The explanation was satisfac- 
tory, as these banks were permitted thus to change their currency by legis- 
lative enactment, and there had been a great want of bills under five dollars 
up to that time, the army having been paid off in fives, this being before 
the day of abundance of small United States ones and twos, and of postage 
currency. Incidentally the conversation turned upon banking-affairs. 
Kirkman assured the official that the bullion of his bank had been sent 
to the North for security in the early days of the rebellion. Th's is not 
believed by the Union men of Tennessee, they being positive that the specie 
of not only the Nashville banks, but of all the banks in the South, has been 
sent to Europe, and has formed the fund from which ships, arms, and muni 
tions of war have thus far been furnished to maintain the Southern rebellion, 
At all events, Mr. Kirkman freely admitted that the deposits of the Southern 
banks would not cover a tithe of their circulation, even if secure,— that tha 
securities of the banks for the redemption of their issues were mainly in 
notes, stocks, bonds, and judgments,— and that if the Southern revolution 
was unsuccessful all the banks would be ruined. 

" For," said he, " if the people are impoverished, if they cannot pay their 
notes, if the stock of our corporations, such as gas-works, turnpikes, rail- 
roads, &c., become worthless, if State stocks fall to a mere nominal value, 
and ii our judgments are not liens upon real estate, hereafter, because of 
confiscation, &c., then the entire banking-system of the South is exploded." 

There lives a lady in Nashville who figures slightly upon our records,— 
a lady who is extensively known in city and general circles,— Mrs. 
Ex-President Polk. She is a woman of note,— wealthy, smart (that is a 
better term than " talented" in this instance), and was rather at the head of 
the female sex of that region as regards all the social bearings. Mrs. Polk 
was a true rebel. She was too shrewd to be violent, however, and too 
well-bred to evince her dislike openly to even the humblest member of our 
army. Severely cool and reticent, she was unmolested, and, when neces- 
sary for her to approach the military authorities for a pass or other requi- 
sites, she was sufficiently bending and gracious to gain her point. She 
has no children : she took to nursing the rebellion of the Southern aristo- 
craoy. Her influence upon the wealthy females of her city must have been 



640 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

almost unbounded. She was the President of the Nashville Ladies' South- 
ern Aid Society, and occupied much of her time in duties pertaining to that 
position. The society met at her house occasionally, and at other private 
houses iipon special occasions; but its general place of meeting was at the 
Masonic Hall. It is stated upon good authority that Mrs. Polk was greatly 
intent upon urging the men of Nashville to enter the rebel army, and that 
she advised the young ladies of that city to send petticofits and hoop-skirts to 
young men who had proved backward in volunteering. Since the perma- 
nent occupation of Tennessee by our army, this lady ha^ been entirely un- 
molested in person and property. When the stables of the town were swept 
of every serviceable horse for army use, General Rosccrans ordered hers to 
be exempted, from a proper respect to the past. She now reposes amid 
comfort and elegance, while desolation sits brooding around her over the 
face of a once happy and prospering country. There is a wisdom in the 
ordering of earthly things past all human comprehension, and the fiat of 
Heaven alone can right many of the wrongs of erring mortals. 

We might pass on through this police record, filling a volume with ita 
gleaming and bristling facts ; but our space is limited, and we must forbear. 
We have commented upon several of the prominent characters; and yet 
upon how small a portion of the ground have we trenched ! To pass by such 
men as Bird Douglass, — rich, prosperous, and who ought to have been con- 
tented and thankful, — and French, and McNairy, and Evans, and the 
Strattons, et id genus omnes, is gross injustice. Douglass, a rich merchant, 
made wealthy by extensions granted him by his Northern creditors, now 
repudiates by rebellion, and advertises in the public newspapers that he has 
one thousand dollars to give as his first ofiering to secession, and has two 
sons for its army, and that if they are killed he has two negro servants, 
each of whom can pick ofi" a equirrel from a tree-top at two hundred yards, 
to take their place. R. C. McNairy was an active member of their vigilance 
committee, &c. : now he sees matters in a difierent light: the cannon has 
become a telescope, and he sighs for a return of the old order of things. 
He is a fair sort of a man, and was rather forced along by the all-powerful 
current. God has given to some men pluck and denied it to others, and ia 
merciful. Henry S. French was a rebel, and then played the Union card 
to subserve rebelism. Reporting himself as an impoverished Union refugee, 
he obtained a permit to pass three thousand eight hundred barrels of salt 
from Louisville, through the canal, to a point on the Ohio River where he 
could pack some meat for the United States Government or for sale. At 
that time it was policy to prevent salt being sold to rebels, and the river 
salt-traffic was closely guarded. French takes his salt down to a point 
near the mouth of the Cumberland, whence it was engineered up that 
river, past the military authorities, gunboats, &c., in some way not ex- 
plained in our records, was brought to Nashville, and there sold to the Con- 
federate Government at forty dollars per barrel, it costipg Mr. French but 
three dollars per barrel. AVith the aid of this salt, the rebels packed one 
hundred and fifty thousand head of hogs, at Nashville, for their army that 
season. This statement is vouched for by several Union citizens of Nash- 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 641 

ville. Meauwhile, Mr. French passes as oue of the peaceable, quiet, non- 
committal do-nothings of the rebellion. 

One other case we cannot pass by,— that of Mark R. Cockrill,— an old man of 
great wealth, living near Nashville. lie was reputed to be worth two million 
dollars, and owned twelve miles of land lying on the Cumberland River. It 
was reported to the Chief of Army Police that this Mr. Cockrill had induced 
guerrillas to lie in wait near his place for the purpose of seizing upon and 
destroying our forage- trains, &c., and that he was still a very bitter rebel. 
Having been ordered to appear at the office of the Chief of Police, he made 
the subjoined statement: — 

"I am upwards of seventy-four years of age, and have six children, 
— three of them being sons, and one of them is in the Confederate 
army. I was born near this city. I had about ninety-eight slaves, but 
most all have left me. My son has been in the Confederate service since the 
war began; is twenty-two years old; was captain in that service; think he 
is now in the Commissary Department. I voted for separation every time ; was 
not a member of any public committee ; have had nothing to do with getting 
up companies or any thing else connected with the army. Have talked a 
good deal:' was opposed to guerrillaism ; have ordered them away from my 
house. I have lost twenty thousand bushels of corn, thirty-sis head of horses 
and mules, sixty head of Durham cattle, two hundred and twenty sheep, — 
very fine ones, valued at one hundred dollars each, — two hundred tons of 
hay. The Federals have taken all this. I have two thousand sheep left, 
and I have a few milch-cows and five or six heifers. I was worth about two 
million dollars before the war commenced. The Confederates have taken 
three horses from me only. I have loaned the Confederates twenty-five 
thousand dollars in gold. They have pressed from me no other property. 
I have their bonds at eight per cent, interest, payable semi-annually in gold, 
for this twenty-five thousand dollars. I thought when I loaned this money 
that the South would succeed, and I think so now. I do not think that the 
two sections can ever be brought together. The Federals also took two thou- 
sand pounds of bacon from me ; also two thousand bushels of oats. Some 
twenty-five or thirty of my men negroes ran away, — six of them, however, 
being pressed. I have about five thousand six hundred acres of land. 
My son James R. is with tho South ; lives on a place belonging to 
me ; but he has never taken any active part. The Federals have taken over 
three thousand dollars' worth of wood from me. I have never received any 
pay for any thing taken from me. I came in yesterday to get a negro black- 
sm'^ith of mine to go out with me : he consented to go if I could get a pass 
for him ; have not been in town before for four months. I paid one thousand 
dollars as an assessment by General Negley about four months since to the 
United States Government, as a loan. I have been very much aggravated 
by the taking of my property, and have been very harsh in my expressiona 
towards those who have visited my place for such purposes. I will not give 
bond for loyal conduct, or that I will not aid or abet by word or deed the South- 
ern cause. The loan to the South was made voluntarily, and supposing it to 
be a good investment. While I was loaning to individuals the loan was made 
to the Southern Government just as I would have loaned to any other party. 
".(Signed) M. R. Cockrill." 

There is Mr. Cockrill's case, in his own language. Need we add a word 
to it ? When brought into the police-office, the poor old man was almost 
beside himself with passion. The language he used respecting the Federal 

troops was, " Kill 'em ! Plant 'em out ! Manure the soil with em ! 

41 



642 



ARMY POLICE RECORD. 



'em !" &c. He utterly refused to give the non-combatant's oath and 

bond ; and when assured by General Rosecrans that he must do so or he 
■would be sent out of the state, and perhaps to a Northern prison, he 
struck his hands against his breast, and exclaimed, — 

*' Take my heart out, — kill me, if you will : I will not give any bond by 
which enemies here can swear falsely and I be prosecuted for its forfeiture." 

The general assured him that he had but a choice of two evils, — to give 
the bond, or be sent away. He preferred the former. 

We must pass over an interesting police case where a rebel family of Nash- 
ville were called upon to answer for exhibiting "a Yankee bone" upon their 
parlor-table, — which bone was declared by them to be a relic from the Bull 
E-un battle-field. Also of several female rebel smugglers, upon one of whom 
was found divers articles, and among them a piece of fine gray cloth, in 
extent twenty-one yards, to be used for rebel officers' uniforms, which she 
had tucked together and hung upon her as a skirt. We regret that our space 
for such mention is entirely exhausted. 

The rebel people of Nashville have been rigorously dealt with in conse- 
quence of their wild conduct. Brigadier-General Mitchell, commandant of 
that post during last winter and spring, and Lieutenant Osgood, his aide and 
pass-officer, were very strict and inflexible in their administration of city 
affairs. These people were not allowed to travel or to do business ; and the 
most wealthy have been troubled at times to get fuel, food, and clothing. 

The rebel ladies made such an ado over wounded Confederate soldiers as 
to give rise to the following military order: — 

"Head-Qoarters U. S. Forces, Nashville, Tenx., February 1, 1863. 

" Orders. — The general commanding at this post desires to express his ad- 
miration of the zeal evinced by certain secession families in administering to the 
wants and alleviating the sufferings of the Confederate wounded to-day brought 
to this city. Great praise should be awarded them for their devotion for the 
suffering soldiers of that cause to which they are so enthusiastically allied. 

"Desiring to give them still greater facilities for the exercise of that devo- 
tion which to-day led them through the mud of the public streets of this 
city unmindful of the inclemency of the weather, and desiring further to 
obviate the necessity of that public and flaunting display which must be 
repvignant to the retiring dispositions of the softer sex, the general com- 
manding directs as follows : — 

"Surgeon Thruston, medical director, will select forty-five of the wounded 
and sick Cuufedcrate soldiers this day brought from the front, to be quartered 
as follows : — Fifteen at the house of Mrs. McCall, fifteen at the house of Dr. 
Buchanan, and fifteen at the house of Sandy Carter, — all on Cherry Street 
immediately below Church Street. 

"As it is desirable that the sick and wounded should not be agitated by 
the presence of too many persons, no one will be admitted to the rooms in 
which the wounded are, except their surgeons, without passes from Surgeon 
Thruston. 

"Each family above named will be held responsible for the safe delivery of 
the Confederate soldiers thus assigned when called for by proper military 
authority, under penalty, in failure of such delivery, of forfeiture to the 
United States of their property and personal liberty. 

"By order of Brigadier-General Robert B. Mitchell, Commanding. 

" Jno. Pratt, A. A. G." 



NASHVILLE AS A TYPE OF THE REBELLION. 643 

Th«. labors of Lieutenant Osgood in this connection were handsomely ac 
knowledg-yd by the mayor of Nashville, in March last, as follows:— 
"Lieutenant Osgood, Provost-Marshal, Staff-General Commanding:-- 

"Allow me, in behalf of the donors. Union friends of Nashville, to present 
to you this beautiful and rich sword-belt and sash, as a token of their high 
esteem for the fidelity and ability with which you have discharged the duties 
of the position assigned you at the head-quarters of this post, and for the 
sagacity you have displayed in detecting and circumventing the wiles and 
plans of rebels, and also the strict observance you have given to the orders 
of your superiors in command. 

" Take them ; preserve them ; hand them down to your posterity as me- 
mentoes of the services you have rendered in crushing out this causeless 
and wicked rebellion. Yours, truly, John Hugh Smith." 

The civil power is also beginning to be felt in Tennessee. The Federal 
Grand Jury, under a charge by Judge Trigg, recently found three hundred 
indictments, at Nashville, for treason and conspiracy against the leaders of 
the rebellion in that State ; and among the culprits indicted are some promi- 
nent clergymen. 

Having thus portrayed some of her individual types of the rebellion, we must 
leave the subject with a brief description of the city of Nashville as she is. 
We stated that she was one of the brightest, most wealthy and prosperous cities 
of the Union. Of all this she is now the exact reverse. Her finest buildings, 
such as her colleges, churches, and elegant stores, are now used as military hos- 
pitals and store-houses. Her streets are dirty, and, where main outlets from 
the city, they have been cut in two, — dug out, as though a canal was being 
made through them, — the dirt thrown up on each side, as barricades against 
rebel attack upon the city, when it was invested and threatened last year. 
Her suburbs are a mournful wreck in many localities, — houses deserted, fences 
gone, fruit-trees gnawed and disfigured ; and the pedestrian is only reminded 
that he is passing over what was once a smiling garden, by his feet catching 
against some yet struggling and crushed grape-vine or rose-bush. The groves 
— the glory of the place — are cut down, and the grounds present the appearance 
of a new " clearing," a stump-field. St. Cloud Hill, once the fashionable retreat, 
where children romped amid the lovely shade and where lovers lisped in cooing 
numbers, is now a bleak, barren, granite mountain, a frowning fortress rising 
from its summit, with cannon trained upon and about the devoted city. The 
old, wealthy merchants of the city — those who yet remain — are prostrate in the 
dust of bankruptcy, and new traders — men from the North— are daily rising 
up in their places. The several printing-ofiices are held by the United States 
authorities as subject to confiscation, and some of them are leased and their 
material is now being used in battling for free government. The extensive 
Methodist Book Concern (Church South) has long been closed and in the 
hands' of the United States Marshal, its managers and apostles taking to the 
rebellion at the very outset as naturally as the young waterfowl seeks its 
familiar element. As we write, the city of Nashville is stagnant, prostrate, 
and in the abject position of a subjugated city. She is changing, however; 
and as the Union is more surely restored and its future guaranteed, she will 
revive. New men will enter, and new and better times will ensue. She will 



644 ARMY POLICE RECORD. 

be purged from the curse that has afflicted her and dragged her down. 
Slavery will no longer blight and -vrither her morals, nor will a haughty, un- 
productive aristocracy prey upon her vitals. Tennessee, with free labor, has 
the capability of becoming one of the grandest States of the Union ; and Nash- 
ville is her crown-jewel. May the old State speedily emerge from the mire in 
which she has been forced to wallow by the wildness of her spoiled leaders, 
and may her coronal gem, the " Rock City," shine all the brighter for her 
momentary eclipse, — when, no longer a type of devastating rebellion, her 
name shall stand as a synonym of prosperity, beauty, and progress ! 

One more thought, ere we close the Police Record of the Army of the 
Cumberland, What is there contained is gathered in the line of official 
duty, irrespective of person and place. For what we publish of it we have 
no apology to offer. Let it stand as best it may. Call it scandal, or harsh- 
ness, or what else one may, it is truth, and cannot be successfully travestied 
or denied. This volume is presented as a picture of the Army of the Cum- 
berland and of the war in Tennessee. It would not be a picture if merely 
an outline. No : it requires the minutiae, the detail, the tint, the shading, 
and the drapery of the background, all together, to constitute a harmonious 
and complete view of the present rebellion. This we have attempted to give, 
in all candor, earnestness, and charity. 

"Charity ?" queries some friendly reader. "Why, then, drag names of erring 
and possibly repentant individual rebels thus into notoriety and embalm 
them in history V Ah, friend, the claims of retributive justice are ill satis- 
fied by the infliction of even that penalty upon the heads of these great 
offenders. We write of the proud, the haughty, the controlling minds of 
the rebellion. And we live in strange times, and are surrounded by many 
a wild and saddening scene. We have learned lessons of late in a rude, 
unvarnished, but truthful school. As we write, we can look out from our 
window upon a field of newly-heaped soldiers' graves, — the graves of our 
brothers and sons of the North. Who laid them there? Across yonder 
swelling field rises a solitary chimney-stack, — a monument of what once was 
a home of peace and plenty. Who plied the brand ? And the faint wailing 
notes of a far-off martial strain now steal upon the ear, borne to our window 
upon the wings of a summer zephyr: they come from the distant camp, 
where thousands have gathered to wage the battle for national existence. 
Should we refrain from mention of the prime cause of all this death, destruc- 
tion, and privation ? We think not. These times and scenes cannot long con- 
tinue, in the nature of things. Peace must come : it must follow exhaustion, 
if it does not spring from victory. The future historian will then appear, 
to weave and create for his day and generation. There will be a Bancroft, 
in those later times, to round the swelling periods, and a Macaulay, to invest 
with grace and beauty the historic pages of the slaveholders' rebellion of the 
nineteenth century. They will search for such lesser lights and shadows aa 
are here recorded with which to gild and tint their complete picture. And 
beneath that picture they will again write, as was written by the Eternal 
One, " They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." 



[SCIDENTS, ANECDOTES, REMINISCENCES, AND POETRY 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLARD. 



M 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 



BiRNiNG OF Steamboats on the Cumberland. — During the month of 
December, 1862, the water in the Cumberland was at its lowest stage. Only 
the lightest class of steamers could reach Nashville, and the grounding, 
delay, and reshipment to cross the Harpeth Shoals, some thirty miles below 
Nashville, was materially added to by the presence of rebel forces, here and 
there, along the river-banks in that vicinity. In the early part of that 
month, four steamers were thus destroyed in one day, and also the small 
gunboat William H. Sidell, which had been hastily improvised from a little 
stern- wheel steamboat, the work being done at Nashville during the blockade. 

An eye-witness of the event thus describes it :— 

" No evidences of danger were seen until, approaching Harpeth Shoals, 
we beheld the smoking hull of the steamer Charter and several burning 
houses on the south side of the river. The steamer had been burned by 
the guerrillas under the notorious Colonel Wade, and the houses by Lieu- 
tenant Van Dorn, of the 1st Ohio, in charge of the national gunboat 
Sidell. A short distance below was a large fleet of Federal steamers 
engaged in getting over the shoals, under the protection of the gunboat. 
Ou passing Van Dorn's fleet, I hailed him, and inquired as to danger below. 
He replied, ' There is no danger below : I have cleaned them out.' We 
passed on, the Trio a mile or so in advance. Nearly two miles below the 
gunboat we caught sight of the Trio lying to in a cove opposite the shoals. 
Knowing that she was short of fuel, we concluded that she was engaged in 
taking on a supply of wood. On nearing her, we saw several mounted 
soldiers drawn up in line along the shore. As many of them had on Federal 
overcoats, we thought them to be our cavalry. They hailed us, and ordered 
us to land. 

" I at once discovered them to be guerrillas, and ordered Captain Robinson 
to land. The order was promptly obeyed. The current being strong, 
the boat did not yield readily to the turn of the pilot, making slow progress 
in swinging around, causing her to drag slowly down the stream. This 
caused the guerrillas to think that we were not going to land, and they mi- 
mediately tired two heavy volleys of musketry, followed by two discharges 
of six-pound balls, all taking effect on the steamer. 

" Your correspondent, in company with Captain Robinson and pilot Kil- 
burn, of Covington, was standing on the hurricane-deck when the firing 
tmk place. I hailed them and told them to tire no more, as we were loaded 
with wounded, and would laud as soon as possible. They tried to kill the 
man at the wheel, who stood bravely at his post amidst all the fare until 
the boat was tied up. On our near approach to them, I hastened dowi to 

647 



648 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

still the dreadful confusion that the firing had caused. Several ladies weva 
on board ; and, be it said to their praise, they behaved like true heroines, — 
no fainting or screaming, — all as quiet as could be desired under such cir- 
cumstances. On my return to the front of the boat I was met by Colonel 
Wade, who, with a horrible oath, ordered Dr. Waterman, the surgeon in 
charge of the wounded, to take his d — d wounded Yankees ashore, as he 
would burn the boat and us too unless the order was obeyed. I instantly 
appealed to him in behalf of the wounded. During this time his followers 
had come on board and took full possession of every thing. 

" Here I should like, if I could, to picture out to your readers and the 
world at large the awful scene of pillage and plunder that ensued. All 
but two or three of them were demoralized by the drink obtained, previous 
to our arrival, from the bar of the Trio. I will not attempt to pen-picture 
the scene : language fails and words are beggars in attempting to do so. 
Nearly one hundred of the thieving, plundering gang were engaged in rifling 
every thing, from the clerk's office to the chambermaid's room. For a few 
moments the stoutest hearts were appalled, and consternation had seized 
upon all. On passing around, appealing to them to desist, I met their 
assistant adjutant-general, in whom I recognized an old acquaintance, whc 
instantly promised to do all in his power to save the boat and stop the plun- 
dering. He spoke to Colonel Wade, and he ordered them off the boat; but, 
alas ! that overshadowing curse of both armies was there, in full possession 
of human hearts that might have been more humane had not the demon- 
spirit of rum hardened their natural sympathies and unchained their baser 
passions. In their maddened thirst for plunder they trampled on and over 
our poor wounded men, taking their rations, blankets, overcoats, canteens, 
and even money out of their pockets. 

"A,nother steamer hove in sight, — the Parthenia, on her way to Clarks- 
vllle. She was ordered ashore, and the same scene was enacted in her 
cabin, save the fact that she had no sick or wounded of any account, but had 
several passengers. The rangers at once boarded her, and, for some time, 
utter ' madness ruled the hour.' The Parthenia was a new steamer, costing 
thirty-three thousand dollars, finely finished and furnished. While engaged 
in rifling her and piling up combustibles on different parts of the boat to 
make her burn rapidly, the gunboat Sidell, spoken of elsewhere, hove in 
sight. Her appeai'ance was a signal of joy to our men and of alarm to the 
rebels, who immediately mounted their horses, ready to run. We hailed 
Van Dorn, and told him to anchor in the middle of the stream, and not come 
between our boat and the range of the guerrillas' cannon. 

" To our utter astonishment, instead of getting ready to cover himself with 
glory in the saving of so much property and several lives, he simply fired his 
revolver and then ignominiously and cowardly waved his white handker- 
chief in token of surrender. The rebels had fired several volleys at him, 
and did no harm, save the wounding of one of Van Dorn's gunners. lie 
then ordered one of his own men to strike the colors, which order was 
obeyed. They then crossed over to the rebel side, who, with tremendous 
yells, took possession of her." 

During this time the weather was cold and stormy, and many of our 
wounded men were left upon the river-bank, without blankets, fire, or 
attendants, for several hours, until another steamer arrived from Clarksville 
to their relief The rebels spared one small steamer to go to Clarksville 
upon the captain entering into a written agreement that the boat should 
hereafter carry no other supplies or do any work for the Government other 
than sanitary work. 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 649 

A.V Affectixg Scene.— The spirit of the rebellion in Nashville Is com- 
pletely broken. We can say the same truly of all Tennessee. The battle 
of Stone River, the erection of the vast forts and fortifications at Nashville 
and Murfreesborough, and the complete occupation of all that country, are 
tangible and irresistibly converting evidences to that hitherto blind and 
haughty people. 

During the observance of the recent order of Brigadier-General Mitchell, 
commanding the post of Nashville, which invited all rebel citizens to come 
forward and take the oath of allegiance who desired to stay there in the full 
enjoyment of citizens' privileges, several remarkable scenes occurred. 
Groat crowds of rebels assembled before the office of the provost-marshal 
daily, eager to make their peace with the old Government. One scene is 
thus related by an eye-witness : — 

Two prominent citizens of Edgefield, across the river from Nashville, 
emerged from the throng, passed into the ofiSce, and, with apparent satis- 
faction, took the oath. An elderly woman, plain in dress and appearance, 
looked on, greatly agitated. She was a Union woman. Those two promi- 
nent citizens were her neighbors. She had two sons, who were at heart 
Union boys if left to their better judgment and her counsels and prayers. 
These men had coaxed, wheedled, driven those sons into the rebel army, 
— where perhaps they now were, if alive. Tears streamed down her cheeks 
upon this occasion, and soon, quite unable to contain herself, she rushed 
through the crowd, wringing her hands and shouting as if in the heartiest 
camp-meeting frame of mind. The scene drew tears from eyes unused to 
weeping. "Was it joy, or sorrow, or pity, or all combined, that then welled 
up from that poor mother's heart and found utterance ? 



"Come out, Sammt!"— An expedition from our army, when near New 
Middleton, Smith county, Tennessee, recently came suddenly upon the pre- 
mises of one Sam Ellison, a vigorous conscript-agent. Taken short, he 
descends into a dark, deep, out-of-the-way well, hoping thus to escape. A 
careful search failed to reveal his hiding-place, until a darJc-&j hint caused 
an examination of the well. A poor Union refugee, the pilot of the expedi- 
tion, and who had been run off into the cedars by the efforts of this same 
agent, approached, bent over the curb, shaded his face with his hands that 
he might peer into the darkness below, and soon, espying the crouching 
object near the water, he blandly remarked,— 

"Come out, Sammy; come out. We've come to call on ye: come out, 
my boy." 

Sam came. 

A Loss OF SuppLiES—Mike Ryan, of Company K, 21st Illinois Volunteers, 
was "marching on" in the line of his duty, on Tuesday evenmg, upon the 
battle-field of Stone River, when a grape-shot swept past him and tore away 



(550 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

his haversack, which Avas filled with three days' rations. Without halt- 
ing an instant, or changing countenance, he remarked, — 

"Och, an' be jabers, if the inemy hasn't flanked me an' cut off me sup- 
plies !" 

Life a Drag. — Long after midnight, — perhaps two o'clock in the morning, 
— AA'hile in camp at Murfreesborough, the author was at General Rosecraus's 
head-quarters, when there seemed to be a momentary cessation of business 
and conversation in his room. The general leaned back in his chair, shaded 
the light from his face with one hand, and not only looked, but seemed to 
feel himself, the picture of weariness. 

" General, you are leading a hard life," we remarked. He answered, 
gently,— 

"Yes, rather hard; and, if this life were all, it would be a wretched 

drag." 

♦ 

Well come up with. — Anderson Sharp, a well-to-do farmer living seven 
miles southeast of Shelbyville, owning slaves and cultivating three hundred 
acres of land, was very careful last fall to crib his corn in a secret place 
beyond reach of "the Yankees," as he alleged. In fact, however, he was 
equally careful to preserve it from the rebels ; for, although he dearly loved 
their treason, he doubted the value of their currency. His negroes mar- 
velled at this inconsistency, and betrayed his corn-piles to hoih armies. 
The rebels were nearest, and got the corn. However, we got the negroes ! 



A Gallant Charge. — Ou the 4th day of March last, Colonel Minty, with 
his cavalry command, the Tth Pennsylvania Cavalry, in the advance, made 
a dashing charge, sabre in hand, upon a superior rebel force near Union- 
ville, Tennessee. They killed several, and captured fifty-two' prisoners. 
Eight of the rebel dead were found with their heads split open by the sabre. 
The rebels fled, — their flight, and in fact their fight, being much impeded 
by their haste to cast off the blue Federal overcoats with which many were 
clothed. This was after the issue of the order of General Rosecrans de- 
claring that all enemies dressed in our uniform should when taken prisoners 
be treated as spies. 



"Dar!" — The Federal engineers at Nashville resolved upon demolishing 
the old Blind Asylum building, in the suburbs of that city, it obstruct- 
ing their works. The walls were massive, and were mined to be blown up 
with gunpowder. Several holes were dug at various points, the powder 
placed, fuses prepared, &c., and a negro laborer was stationed over each, 
with a light, to touch them all at the same instant, upon a given signaL 
Sambo was very nervous, wondering, and excited, — too much so to succeed. 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 651 

At the signal moment each dashed his light upon the place and broke for 
shelter "like a quarter-horse." One or two of them had courage to wait 
and see the fuse begin to burn. "Dar! dar!" shouted they, and away they 
travelled. The explosion was not at all simultaneous, and the walls were 
breached only in spots. Two or three times was the attempt repeated, with 
similar results, occasioning much merriment. Not a single "American of 
African descent" could be induced to stay until the fuses were surely fired. 
" Dar I dar \" was the fearful announcement ; and the engineers were forced 
to assume the task. In justice to Sambo, we should state, however, that a 
very brief acquaintance with prepared saltpetre disarms him of his fears. 



The Soldier's Oath. — At Louisville, Major William H. Sidell, mustering- 
in officer, had just administered the usual army oath to some new recruits, 
when a secesh lady (may we call her Mrs. Johnson?) remarked to him, 
with a smiling air, but considerably impregnated with contempt, — 

"Well, major, have you brought your men down to that depth of 
slavery ?" 

"Madam," answered he, with politest bow and smile, "that same oath 
your Jeff Davis, and Bragg, and most of your rebel generals, have taken, 
and," he added, in a low, deep voice, "have broken!" 



Gathering in the Contrabands. — Our Southern brethren have been 
sensitive upon the negro-labor question from the commencement of the 
rebellion up to this time. As a general rule, they preferred losing or lend- 
ing a horse rather than a slave. They feared army influences upon their 
chattel,— that he would become "a mean nigger." Of course the same 
difficulty would not arise in the army education of the horse or mule. 
For this reason it is — at least, we can conceive of no other— that the rebel 
planter has often fled, at short notice, with his negroes, leaving wife, 
children, mules, hogs, and household goods to the mercy of the invading 
Northmen. At the outset the negroes were crammed with most awful 
accounts of the ways of the savage Yankees, and many of the poor crea- 
tures were equally eager with their masters to fly from us. 

Thus premising, we have to relate an amusing affair which occurred at 
Nashville last fall. Upon the commencement of the fortifications in that 
city, orders were given to impress all able-bodied male negroes, to be put 
at work upon the forts. The slavehr iders of the city at once began to 
secrete their negroes in cellars and by-ways. The Federal officers said 
nothing, but resolved to bide their time,- their gangs upon the works, mean- 
while, singing and wheeling away quite merrily. After several days all 
sensation subsided, and an occasional colored individual would be seen at an 
open window or shuffling around a street-corner. At length the time for 
action was at hand. A fine Sabbath evening came, and with it a large con- 
gregation of pious negroes, in all their Sunday array and perfumery. They 



652 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

felt in fine feather; for -was not the city being fortified and defended, and the 
day of jubilee for the coloi'ed race close at hand ? A hymn flowed out in har- 
monious cadence, equal in volume to the rolling flood of the Cumberland 
A prayer was ofiFered with great earnestness and unction, and the preacher 
had chosen his text, when, lo ! an apparition appeared at the door, — yes, 
several of them ! A guard of blue-coated soldiers, with muskets, entered, 
and announced to the startled brethren that the services of the evening 
would be concluded at Fort Negley. Out went the lights, as if by magic, 
and there was a general dive for the windows. Shrieks, howls, and impre- 
cations went forth to the ears of darkness, rendering night truly hideous. 
Fancy bonnets were mashed, ribbons were rumpled, and the destruction of 
negro finery was enormous. Some reached the windows and crawled out, 
and into the hands of guards who were waiting outside. The shepherd of 
the flock was thus caught, it is said, while making a dive through the 
window, head first, butting over two "bold soger boys" as he came out. 
The scene was amusing indeed. And the nest morning it was still more 
comical, — the same crowd being at work at the fort, dressed in their mussed 
and bedirtied finery of the previous evening, in which they had slept upon 
the earthworks, — they, meanwhile, being the jeer and sport of their sur- 
rounding darkey acquaintances. 

It is due to these colored laborers of Nashville to add that by their labor, 
during some three months' time. Fort Negley and other fortifications were 
built. They cut the stone, laid the stone wall, wheeled and carted the earth, 
blasted the rock ; and they performed their work cheerfully and zealously, 
and without any pay, except their daily rations and perhaps some clothing. 



A Review of the Chivalry. — A Union prisoner at Shelbyville, on the 
8th of March last, was invited by Major Clarence Prentice, commanding 
some rebel cavalry, to ride with him, while he inspected some regiments 
under the command of Colonel James Hagan, of Mississippi, acting briga- 
dier-general. The troops were in line, — a motley, ragged set. Old Jack 
Falstafi", marching with his ragamufiins through Coventry, could not have 
presented a more tattered picture. As Major Prentice passed along, one 
man would be particular to hold out conspicuously a foot without boot, 
shoe, or even stocking ; another would call his attention to elbows pro- 
truding through holes much too large for them ; another would take especial 
care to render prominent ragged unmentionables and yawning rents therein, 
"gaping wide as Erebus ;" and so on throughout the whole line. One tall, 
gaunt, long-haired fellow, whose miserable apology for a hat had no top, 
raised his hand, drew through the hole where the top ought to be a mass 
of tangled, yellow hair, and held it there at full length. The scene was 
almost too ridiculous for the maintenance of gravity, and only by an extra- 
ordinary effort could the inspector control himself sufficiently to sustain the 
dignity due the occasion. 

In one of the^e regiments of two hundred and sixty-four men and horses 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 653 

there were hnt four pair of socks ; forty-seven of the men had no guns, and 
one hundred and forty-seven of the horses were without saddles. In the 
other, — styled the 8th Confederate Cavalry,— numbering two hundred and 
seventy-four men, two hundred and four of whom were present at revievf 
and seventy on picket-duty, one hundred and twenty-five were without hats 
and thirtj'-two without arms. Such a state of affairs seems to have disgusted 
the major, as in less than a month thereafter he renounced all connection 
with the rebels and returned to Louisville. 



Bragg and his High Private. — The following incident was related to 
a Union man in Shelbyville, Tennessee, by Major Hunter, of the Confede- 
rate army, who formerly resided in Shelbyville, but who latterly resided 
some twenty miles from Helena, Arkansas. The major was fond of the 
story, and often repeated it. 

While Bragg's troops were on their retreat from Murfreesborough, ragged, 
hungry, and weary, they straggled along the road for miles, with an eye to 
their own comfort, but a most unmilitary neglect of rules and regulations. 
Presently one of them espied, in the woods near by, a miserable broken- 
down mule, which he at once seized and proceeded to put to his use, by im- 
provising, from stray pieces of rope, a halter and stirrups. This done, he 
mounted with grim satisfaction, and pursued his way. He was a wild 
Texas tatterdemalion, bareheaded, barefooted, and wore in lieu of a coat a 
rusty-looking hunting-shirt. With hair imkempt, beard unshorn, and face 
unwashed, his appearance was grotesque enough ; but, to add to it, he drew 
from some receptacle his corn-cob pipe, and made perfect his happiness by 
indulging in a comfortable smoke. 

While thus sauntering along, a company of bestarred and bespangled 
horsemen — General Bragg and staff — rode up, and were about to pass on, 
when the rather unusual appearance of the man attracted their notice. 
The object of their attention, however, apparently neither knew nor cared 
to know them, but looked and smoked ahead with careless indifference. 

"Who are you?" asked the major-general. 

" Nobody," was the answer. 

" Where did you come from ?" 

" Nowhere." 

" Where are you going?" 

" I don't know." 

" Where do you belong ?" 

"Don't belong anywhere." 

" Don't you belong to Bragg's army?" 

" Bragg's army ! Bragg's army !" replied the chap. " Why, he's got no 
army ! One half of it he shot in Kentucky, and the other half has just 
been whipped to death at Murfreesborough." 

Bragg asked no more questions, but turned and spurred away. 



654 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

The Union Ladies of Siielbtville. — Shelbyville, Tennessee, has always 
been known as a Union town; and the following incident shows that its 
ladies, at least, are willing to make known their faith by their works. 

On the 4th of March last, General Van Dorn, with several thousand rebel 
cavalry and infantry, surprised a brigade of Federal troops below Franklin, 
and took twelve hundred and six of them prisoners. They were marched to 
Shelbyville and placed under guard at the court-house. They had scarcely 
arrived when it became known that they were in a famishing condition, having 
eaten nothing for a day and a half. Following this report came a stir and 
bustle in many of the Shelbyville kitchens. Ere long the Union ladies 
began to throng from their houses into the street, each with her servants 
carrying baskets, buckets, and bundles. A procession was formed, and 
away they marched to the court-house. As they passed along, the rebel 
guards eyed them askance, — some with surly looks, while others asked, 
"Won't you sell us some?" One or two officers seemed disposed to interfere ; 
but the ladies persisted and prevailed. The court-house was reached and 
the Union soldiers fed. 

It was an animated and beautiful scene, illustrative at once of the courage 
and the kindness of these noble-hearted women. It was no small matter to 
brave the taunts and jeers that assailed them on the way; but the thanks 
•which were looked rather than spoken, as with bright, happy faces they 
distributed to the half-starved men the good cheer they had brought with 
them, more than repaid them for it all. And many a weary captive thanked 
God that day that there were still left in the old land some " who had not 
bowed the knee to Baal," and in fervent prayer invoked a blessing upon 
the heads of the noble Union women of Shelbyville. 

Three months later, upon the advance of our army to Shelbyville, these 
Unionists welcomed us with banners and smiles and many other evidences 
of their heartfelt joy and gratitude. 



Rebel Charity. — The heartlessness of the chivalry was well illustrated 
by a case which recently came to the notice of the Chief of Police. A Mrs. 
Lucy Brown, living about three miles from McMinnville, Cannon county, 
Tennessee, came into Nashville on the last day of March, bringing with her 
three children, the oldest of whom was only seven years of age. Their 
condition was pitiable in the extreme. Both herself and children were 
literally covered with rags, and were suffering from hunger and from cold. 
Some two weeks before, she said, Morgan's men came to her house, and, under 
the pretence that her husband was in the Union army, carried away every 
thing she had, leaving only one bed and two pieces of quilts, but not a 
mouthful of any thing for herself and boys to eat. To save herself from 
starvation, as well as to search for her husband, who was a Union refugee, 
she had come to Nashville. 

Her wretched plight. excited commiseration; and, in the absence of other 
suitable accommodations, she was sent to the house of Dr. W. A. Cheatham 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 655 

— a brother-in-law of Morgan — to be clothed and fed, — the Chief of Police 
at the same time giving her several dollars with which to purchase shoes, &c. 
Despite the many favors which had been shown to Cheatham's family, and 
the forgiving courtesy and kindness with which they had been treated, this 
call upon them for temporary aid was responded to with a very bad grace. 
Mrs. Brown was left in her rags, turned into a basement room, and forced 
to eat and sleep with the negroes. She was closely questioned about Morgan 
and his men, and was told that it was not Morgan's men at all, but Federal 
soldiers, who had robbed her. There she remained some days, the family 
having nothing to say to her. Occasionally Mrs. Cheatham would bring 
some lady friends down to the kitchen to see her and her children, when 
they would question her and tell her she lied, and, with a spiteful laugh, 
Mrs. Cheatham would assure her friends that this Mrs. Brown was not what 
she was trying to palm herself off for, but only "one of old Truesdail's 
spies." 

A Soldier's Plan of Settlement. — The railroad from Murfreesborough 
to Nashville passes through what was once a fine farming-land ; now, how- 
ever, fences are down and gone, houses burned, and the whole country wears 
a desolate appearance. Gliding along in the cars, one day, past many fields 
which were just becoming green with tender grass, the author heard one of 
a lively group of soldiers remark, — 

" I tell you, boys, what should be done all along here. Let Uncle Sam 
run his surveyor's chain all over this ; then let every soldier pre-empt his 
one hundred and sixty acres, and it will be God's land again." 

Possibly it would trouble a wordy politician in a three-hours speech to 
arrive at a more politic conclusion, — one that would more nearly remunerate 
the soldier, the sooner build up and beautify that country, and prove a more 
merited judgment upon a rebellious people. 



Girls' Wit. — Upon going to the tent of the head-quarters photographer, 
at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, recently, to have his manly countenance 
painted by the sunbeams, Brigadier-General Garfield, Chief of Staff, found 
there a bevy of rebel girls. As he entered, with a number of military 
friends, they hastily left the premises. Passing out of the door, one of them 
slyly remarked, — 

"Let John Morgan come in here, and he'll take that Yankee general much 
quicker than the camera can." 



Foraging a Military Science.— The soldiers of the Army of the Cum- 
berland are "heavy on drill." The manual of arms has become a habit 
with them, and their quickness in executing commands is a marvel akin to 
intuition. But especially are they worthy of commendation when foraging, 
either in the aggregate or upon individual responsibility. Woe unto pigs 
and sheep and'calves and chickens when they are on the march ! 



658 ARMY OP THE CUMBEELAND. 

Recently a AVisconsin colonel was boasting of his regiment, declaring 
most roundly that his boys, while marchiug by the flank in dress and step, 
could catch, kill, skin, divide, and stow away a half-grown hog unnoticed 
by the next company, front or rear. An Ohio captain, nothing daunted 
upon hearing this, said his boys were equally clever. In camp, of nights, 
they usually had veal or mutton. While slaughtering, they would mount 
their own guard, and, at the least alarm of an officer approaching, down 
the butchers would get upon the grass, with a blanket thrown over the car- 
cass, around which they would be sitting demurely, intent upon a very inte- 
resting game of "euchre" or " seven-up." 



The Prayer of the Wicked. — During the month of December last, and 
for many weeks previous, a severe drought prevailed in Tennessee. The 
Cumberland River was fordable in many places, the smaller streams nearly 
dry, and in sundry localities water for stock very scarce. During its con- 
tinuance, a Union man at Shelbyville, while in attendance upon the Method- 
ist church at that place, heard a prayer offered from the pulpit by the 
officiating minister, in which occurred a sentence somewhat as follows : — 

*' Lord, as a nation free and independent, look down upon us in mercy 
and loving-kindness, and hold us within the hollow of thy hand amidst 
all our desolation and sorrow. Let the rays of heaven's light smile upon 
our fields, and the dews of beneficent mercy be shed upon our valleys. Let 
the rain descend to beautify and fructify the earth and to swell the rivers 
of waters ; but, Lord, do not raise the Cumberland sufficient to bring 
upon us the damnable Yankee gunboats I" 

This is the correct version : it has been going the rounds of the newspapers 
mutilated. 



Rebel Petticoat Government. — The dear ladies of the South are despe- 
rately wicked little rebels, as a whole. Very many instances have come to 
light within the lines of this army where the men would have abstained 
from and abjured the rebellion had it not been for the determined wildness 
of the women. 

A young man, intelligent and of pleasing demeanor, when taken prisoner 
by our forces stated that he never was a rebel at heart, nor was his 
mother. He had determined to keep out of their army, and resolutely did so 
for a time. He soon found, however, that he was a marked man, — was 
jeered at and scorned by every young lady in his neighborhood. He braved 
it for a while; but one day matters came to a crisis. A party of girls came 
to his house, bringing with them shawls, dresses, and a skeleton hoop-skirt, 
which they left for him to put on! The dose was overpowering, and he 
went off at once and joined the rebel army. 

The same spirit has pervaded the whole of the benighted South. There, 
as everywhere, the women are the purest or the worst of the race. 

The Misses Smith, residing four miles from Murfreesborough, upon a 
recent occasion boastingly assured some Federal officers, at their dinner-table 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 65V 

that they, with other young ladiea of that vicinity, had formed themselves 
into a rebel association for the express purpose of forcing every young man 
of their acquaintance into the army, and that they had been eminently 
successful in so doing. In several instances they had threatened the back- 
ward beaux with petticoat and hoop-skirt presentations. 



General Palmer and the Hog.— Two years ago our ofiScers were very 
strict in respect to foraging upon the individual hook. Chickens and pigs 
were held sacred, because 

"It is a sin 
To steal a pin," &o. 

But a year or so of earnest war taught the nation a lesson, and this strict* 
ness has been greatly relaxed. Now it is practically " root, hog, or die" 
with our soldiers when in the enemy's country. 

Early one morning in 1862, while at Farmington, near Corinth, Missis- 
sippi, as Brigadier- (now Major-) General Palmer was riding along his lines 
to inspect some breastworks that had been thrown up during the previous 
night, he came suddenly upon some of the boys of Company I, 27 ch Illinois 
Volunteers, who had just shot a two-hundred-pound hog, and were engaged 
in the interesting process of skinning it. The soldiers were startled ; their 
chief looked astonished and sorrowful. 

" Ah ! a body, — a corpse. Some poor fellow gone to his last home. "Well, 
he must be buried with military honors. Sergeant, call the officer of the 
guard." 

The officer was speedily at hand, and received orders to have a grave dixg 
and the body buried forthwith. The grave was soon prepared, and then 
the company were mustered. Pall-bearers placed the body of the dead upon 
a stretcher. The order was given to march, and, with reversed arms and 
funeral tread, the solemn procession of sixty men followed the body to the 
grave. Not a word passed nor a muscle of the face stirred while the last rites 
of sepulture were being performed. The ceremony over, the general and 
his staif waved their adieiix, and were soon lost in the distance. 

The philosophy of the soldier is usually equal to the emergency. lie 
has read and pondered. He now painfully realizes that flesh is as grass, 
and that life is but a shadow. But he thinks of the ixsunretion, and his ~ 
gloom passes away. So with the philosophic boys of Company I, 27th 
Illinois. Ere their general was fairly seated at his own breakfast-table, 
there was a raising of the dead, and savory pork-steaks were frying in 
many a camp-pan. 

A Rebel " Pow-wow" Denied. — A day or two after the battle of Stone 

River, and while burial-partiea were yet busy upon the field, a minister of 

the gospel, of secession proclivities, applied to the general commanding at 

Murfreesborough for permission to take the body of the rebel General James 

N 42 



658 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

Rains to Nashville — his former home — for burial. General Rosecrana, 
alive to the courtesies of military life, readily consented, — when it was inti- 
mated to him that the secessionists of Nashville were intending to make the 
funeral a rebel ovation. The idea stung him. Turning to the applicant 
in his earnest, brusque manner, he remarked, — 

"I wish it to be distinctly understood that there is to be no fuss made 
over this affair, — none at all, sir, I won't permit it, sir, in the face of this 
bleeding army. My own officers are here, dead and unburied, and the 
bodies of my brave soldiers are yet on the field, among the rocks and cedars. 
You may have the corpse, sir ; but remember distinctly that you can't have 
an infernal secession 'pow-wow' over it in Nashville !" 



Conquering bt Starvation. — Starving out an enemy may at times be a 
sure process ; but in a country of such vast extent as rebeldom it is cer- 
tainly a slow one. However, signs ominous of such a result have been 
visible, and were the subject of a recent discussion by a party of officers at 
the head-quarters of Major-General Sheridan, near Murfreesborough. The 
general was not as sanguine on the point as many others, and remarked, — 

" Gentlemen, don't let us be as mistaken in this as I was once in my Mis- 
souri campaigning. The word went out, all over the State, that there was 
a great scarcity of salt ; there was no salt for meat, nor even for bread. 
Because of these reports, I was extremely cautious to shut down on the salt- 
trade in ray rear. Not a bushel of salt would I pass into or beyond my 
lines. In this I thought I was doing good service ; but imagine my surprise 
and hearty disgust, on entering Springfield, Missouri, to find that the only 
article left behind by Price and his men in their hasty flight, and of which 
I found large quantities there, was — salt !" 



A Rebel Beecher. — The Beechers are known throughout the Union as 
men of talent and of positive views, — many term them extreme, especially 
on the slavery question. But this rebellion has even cut in twain the 
family of the Beechers. During the battle of Stone River, Dr. Charles 
Bunce, of Galesburg, Illinois, assistant surgeon of the 59th Illinois Volun- 
teers, remained upon the field, busily engaged in caring for his wounded 
men, and with them was made a prisoner. Soon after, while surrounded by 
a group of rebel officers to whom he had been introduced, he remarked, in 
the course of conversation, that he was surprised to find even New Yorkers 
among the officers of the Southern army. 

" Worse than that, sir," said a bystander. " In me you see a man from 
Massachusetts and Illinois. My name is Edward A. Beecher, son of 
Edward Beecher, President of Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. Henry 
Ward Beecher is my uncle." 

"Why, Galesburg is my town, and I know your father well," replied the 
Illinois doctor. 



IKCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 669 

The pleasure of the acquaintance thus formed was mutual, and the 
doctor Boon found that he had met with a genuine Beecher in appearance 
and manners. This son of Edward the eminent was a quartermaster in 
General Cheatham's division, and previous to the war had practised law 
at JNIemphis, Tennessee. He was not at all bitter in his feelings nor harsh 
in his views, yet was withal a most determined rebel. 



A Southern "Ladt." — A friend visiting the camps near Major-General 
Sheridan's head-quarters at Murfrecsborough, several weeks after the 
battle of Stone River, heard the following incident of Southern society 
related by Colonel J. R. Miles, of the 27th Regiment Illinois "Volunteers. 
The topic of discussion was the negro, " as usual." 

The colonel said he had been rather sold on one occasion down in Alabama, 
last year, while the Federal troops were occupying the line of the Memphis 
& Charleston Railroad. His command was detailed to guard a bridge, 
near which lay large, rich plantations. On a pleasant Sabbath afternoon, 
as he reclined listlessly in his tent, a carriage drove up. The horses were 
of the finest, the coach elegant, and the driver with gloves, tfec. d, la mode. 
A beautifully-dressed lady was the occupant, — a little dark in feature, per- 
haps, but still fair. Her hair was in ringlets, a " love of a bonnet" on her 
head, a large pin glittering upon her breast, and jewelry displayed else- 
where in profusion. The colonel walked to the carriage with due alacrity, 
saluted the lady most respectfully, and awaited her commands. She said 
she resided on a plantation near by, and had come to inquire about a straw- 
cutting machine that had been borrowed or taken by the soldiers. The 
colonel made due explanation, and said the machine should speedily be 
returned. 

"I hope so," said she; "for Master Mosely needs it sadly." 

" What's that ? Did you say Master Mosely 1" 

" Yes, sir, I did." 

" You don't say that he is your master,— that you are a slave, — do you?" 

The " lady" — we suppose we must continue to call her a " lady," for con- 
sistency's sake — smiled quite charmingly, as she replied, calmly, — 

" Yes, sir." 

The colonel took a second glance at the carriage, the horses, the silvered 
harness, the driver, and then at the finely-dressed person within, and was 
completely astounded, albeit he was born and raised in Kentucky, near the 
Tennessee line, not more than thirty miles from Nashville. 

" Pray," queried he, further, "is your master a married man?" 

" No : he is a widower." 

" Well, does he treat you as his wife ?" 

She did not answer this question direct, but bade the driver start on, 
and, as she was driven ofi", remarked, — 

" I live in his house." 

Subsequent inquiries revealed the following state of the case. A Virginia 



bbU ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

planter hail sold this girl to go South, upon the express agreement that she 
•was to be handsomely provided for, — the general supposition being that sho 
was his child. The trader brought her to this widower's designedly, and 
doubled his money in the trade. She was now perhaps thirty years old, 
and certainly a very handsome woman. Mosely was a rich planter, living 
on Mallard Creek, about half-way between Courtland and Decatur, and had 
a family by his first wife, one of whom was a daughter, now some sixteen 
years of age. 



A Rebel Story. — At the dinner-table of Mrs. Jernigan, a Union lady in 
Shelbyville, Tennessee, and whose husband is a refugee from his home as 
we write, the following incident was related, during the month of March, 
1863, by a rebel officer of John Morgan's command, latterly in the rebel 
Quartermaster's Department. 

Some months ago, a Federal officer in charge of a small expedition 
caught two bushwackers and had them hung. They belonged to Morgan's 
command ; and he vowed vengeance on the first prisoners he should capture. 
Soon afterwards he took seventeen Federal soldiers prisoners, and put his 
threat into execution. Six he shot, seven he hung, and four were despatched 
with an axe, — " as you would kill hogs," the narrator said. 

The minutias of the tale we will suppress, in the name of humanity. The 
narrator, however, gloated over the manner in which the poor soldiers pleaded 
for their lives, or for at least an honorable soldier's death, and, in a spirit 
of bravado, dwelt leisurely upon the horrid details. This evidence has 
been preserved to fill one of the darkest pages in the history of the accui-sed 
rebellion. 



Secesh Religion. — As two of the army secret police were passing the 
house of a certain Mrs. Harris, a secession woman of Edgefield, opposite 
Nashville, Tennessee, whose husband had been arrested and imprisoned 
the previous week upon the charge of stealing Government horses and 
running them South, they were espied by her from her window. Stepping 
to the door, she calls to them and invites them in. They decline the in- 
vitation, because, they say, they are in a great hurry. She then inquires 
about her husband, and is told that he is safe — in jail at Nashville. 

" But didn't you tell me that you would help him all you could, when 
you came to see me about him the other day?" she asked. 

" Yes," was the reply ; " and we did help him right well. He is where 
the dogs won't bite him now," was the jeering rejoinder. 

The woman was in a rage in a moment. She had been imposed upon ; 
and she burst forth with the angry exclamation, — 

" Oh, jou thieving Yankee scoundrels ! that's the way you serve a poor 
woman, is it?" — and so on for full three minutes, ending her harangue with 
the following unanswerable declaration : — " Oh, I never had any religion, and 
I never expect to have any until you two knaves and that wicked old Trues- 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 661 

dail, your master, are all hung. Then I shall have religion. 1 shall jump 
and scream for very joy." 

The policemen hurriedly "skedaddled," amid a general opening of doors, 
■windows, and ears in the neighborhood. 



A Practical Camp-Joke.— The soldier in his best estate is full of fun. 
In a tent in the camp of the 11th Indiana Battery, near Murfreesborough, 
in the absence of chairs a rude bench had been constructed by placing a 
board upon cross-legs. The board was soon found too limber to bear up the 
crowd which daily enjoyed its comforts, and was, in consequence, strength- 
ened by laying another thick plank over it, A roguish sergeant one day 
removed this top plank, bored a number of auger-holes nearly through the 
bottom board, filled them with powder, laid a train from one to another, pre- 
pared his fuse, and then replaced the plank. Shortly after, the bench, as 
usual, was filled with his unsuspecting comrades, — when he reached down 
and touched the fuse with his lighted cigar. Of course, there was an explo- 
sion just about that time, which hoisted the party as would a petard, up- 
setting the stove and tent-furniture, knocking down the tent, and enveloping 
all in smoke and dire confusion. 



A Soldier's Armistice. — One of the most remarkable features of this 
war is the absence of vindictiveness among the soldiery of the two sections. 
When parties have met with flags of truce, the privates will freely con- 
verse, drink from each others' canteens, and even have a social game of 
cards in a fence-corner. Especially upon picket-duty has this friendliness 
broken in upon discipline, — so much so that in many instances orders have 
been issued strictly forbidding such intercourse. The following incident is 
related by a member of the 8th Kentucky:-^ 

" On the 27th of December, our army arrived at Stewart's Creek, ten 
miles distant from Murfreesborough. The following day, being Sabbath, 
and our general being devout, nothing was done, except to cross a few com- 
panies on the left as skirmishers, our right being watched by the enemy's, 
as well as ours, — both extending along the creek on opposite sides. Despite 
of orders, our boys would occasionally shut an eye at the Confederates, who 
were ever ready to take the hint. This was kept up until evening, when the 
boys, finding they were effecting nothing at such long range, quit shooting, 
and concluded they would ' talk it out,' — whereupon the following occurred : — 

" Federal (at the top of his voice). — ' Halloo, boys ! what regiment?' 

" Confederate.—' 8th Confederate.' 

" Federal. — ' Bully for you !' 

" Confederate. — ' What's your regiment?' 

" Federal.— ' ^ih and 21st Kentucky.' 

" Confederate. — 'AH right.' 

" Federal. — ' Boys, have you got any whiskey ?' 



662 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

" Confederate. — 'Plenty 3f her.* 

" Federal. — ' How'll you trade for coffee V 

" Confederate. — ' Would like to accommodate you, but never drink it whil< 
the worm goes.' 

" Federal. — ' Let's meet at the creek and have a social chat.' 

" Confederate. — 'Will you shoot?' 

" Federal. — ' Upon the honor of a gentleman, not a man shall. Will you 
shoot ?' 

" Confederate. — 'I give you as good assurance.' 

" Federal. — ' Enough said. Come on.' 

" Confederate. — ' Leave your arms.' 

" Federal. — ' I have left them. Do you leave yours?' 

" Confederate. — ' I do.' 

" Whereupon both parties started for the creek to a point agreed upon. 
Meeting almost simultaneously, we (the Federals) were, in a modulated 
tone, addressed in the usual unceremonious style of a soldier, by — 

" Confederate. — ' Halloo, boys ! how do you make it ?' 

" Federal.—' Oh, bully ! bully !' 

" Conjederate. — ' This is rather an unexpected armistice.' 

" Federal.—' That's so.' 

" Federal. — ' Boys, are you going to make a stand at Murfreesborough ?' 

" Confederate. — ' That is a leading question : notwithstanding, I will 
venture to say it will be the bloodiest ten miles you ever travelled.' 

" Thus the conversation went on for some time, until a Confederate cap- 
tain (Miller, of General Wheeler's cavalry) came down, requesting an ex- 
change of papers. On being informed we had none, he said he would give 
us his anyhow, and, wrapping a stone in the paper, threw it across. Some 
compliments were passed, when the captain suggested that, as it was getting 
late, we had better quit the conference ; whereupon both parties, about twenty 
each, began to leave, with, ' Gof5d-bye, boys : if ever I meet you in battle, I'll 
spare you.' So we met and parted, not realizing that we were enemies." 



A Vandal General. — Brigadier-General Morton, of the Pioneer Brigade, 
has a penchant for pulling down houses in robeldom, where they stand in 
the way of his military operations. The most costly edifice speedily tumbles 
if obstructing the range of artillery from his fortifications. Two hours' or 
half a day's notice will be given, and, whether vacated or not, at the expi- 
ration of that time off goes the roof. While superintending the building of 
Fort Negley, at Nashville, General Morton found it necessary to remove 
many houses in the outskirts of the city. This gave him quite a local 
reputation, — such as it was, — but of which he was totally regardless. One 
morning early he rode about the suburbs of Nashville with some friends, 
to show them the works, pointing, as he rode along, with his hand in divers 
directions. The inhabitants, now constantly on the qui vice for military 
operations, were terrified, — were sure he was giving orders to his staff to 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 663 

pull down houses and make new streets ; and several of them, in a most 
excited and in some instances quite ludicrous manner, appealed to him and 
to the city authorities to spare them. 



A Foraging-Incident.— During the month of March, 1863, an extensive 
foraging and reconnoitring expedition, comprising several hundred men 
and teams of Major-General Reynolds's division, went out from Murfrees- 
horough towards Lebanon, through a fertile and well-stocked country, the 
people of which were mainly intensely rebel. The expedition was very suc- 
cessful, bringing back corn, fodder, poultry, pigs, and cattle innumerable, — 
also some four hundred head of horses and mules, to aid in mounting Colonel 
Wilder's infantry brigade. "While out upon this expedition, the train came 
to the premises of an active, wealthy, bitter old rebel, — one who had made 
himself very busy in procuring volunteers for the rebel army, and particu- 
larly obnoxious to his Union neighbors by assisting the rebel agents to hunt 
down conscripts. He looked rather astonished when our advance cavalry 
was followed off by his horses. The quartermaster came next, with his 
mules and the contents of his corn-cribs. When the commissary marched 
by in charge of the gentleman's extra-fat cattle, " secesh," in great alarm, 
wanted to know if we were not going to pay for his " goods." " We are not 
paying money at present to any one," blandly replied the quartermaster. 
" Well, but you will give me a receipt for them ?" " Certainly, sir : here 
are your vouchers already made out." " Secesh" read them, apparently 
well pleased, until he came to the inexorable words, " to be paid at the close 
of the war, upon proof of loyalty." "Well, if that is the case," said he, 
" they may go to the d — 1 ;" and, turning to a couple of his darkies, who 
were looking on with open mouths, he administered to them a few vigorous 
kicks a posteriori, exclaiming, " you, you go too!" 



The General at Review. — When the commander-m-chief of the Army 
of the Cumberland rides out to review his troops, there is usually something 
of a pleasant as well as instructive character going on. Upon his appearing, 
the welkin rings with the hearty cheers of the troops. When dressed in 
line, the general occasionally passes along in front, scanning ea«h man 
closely and with a skilful and practised eye, noticing in an instant any thing 
out of place in their dress or accoutrements. He always keeps a sharp 
look-out for his officers, holding them accountable for the conduct of the 
men. On review a short time since, he gave a forcible illustration of his 
ideas on the subject. He noticed a private whose knapsack was very much 
awry, and drew him from the ranks, calling at the same time for his captam, 
who approached. " Captain, I am sorry to see you don't know how to strap 
a knapsack on a soldier's back." "But I didn't do it, general." "Oh, 
^^ou didn't' Well, hereafter you had better do it yourself, or see that it is 
done correctly by the private. I have nothing more to say to him._^ I shall 
hold you responsible, sir, for the appearance of your men." " But i. i can 4 



664 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

make them attend to these matters?" said the officer. " Then, if you (an^t, 
you had better leave the service." 

W"hen he finds occasion to "jog" a soldier for some remissness, he will do It 
effectually, and yet in a manner so genial and kindly that no offence is taken, 
but rather his men admire him the more. For example, reviewing a 
brigade recently, he came to a good-looking private whose shoes were quite 
too much the worse for wear, — albeit there were hundreds of boxes of 
shoes then in the quartermaster's department of our army. General Rose- 
crans halted and inquired into the case. The soldier stated that he had 
applied time and again, but could draw no shoes. The captain came up : 
he said he had tried his utmost, and he could get none. " Bad work, sir t 
very bad work ! It won't do, sir ! — it sha'n't do, sir !" remarked the general : 
" your men must have comfortable clothing. I want all my men to stir up 
their captains, and I want the captains to stir up their colonels, and I want 
the colonels to keep at their generals, and then let the generals come to me 
and stir me up, and keep stirring up, all of you, until these needless evils 
are remedied. That's the way to do it !" 

Upon another occasion. General Rosecrans noticed a private without a 
canteen, but otherwise quite neatly arrayed. " Ah, here's a good soldier ; 
all right, — ^firsl>-rate, — with one little exception. Good clothes and good 
arms : he marches, and drills, and fights, and eats. But he don't drink. 
That's queer ; and I fear he won't hold out on a pinch. March all day in 
the heat and dust, yet don't want to drink ! Rather afraid of a break-down 
here. Better have the canteens, boys, and well filled, too I" And he passes 
on, leaving a lesson and a smile. 



At the Grave. — Upon the battle-field of Stone River the author saw a 
Northern father standing with folded arms and clouded yet firm counte- 
nance, while assistants were raising the body of his only son, that he might 
return with it to the home in the land of prairie and lake. "What Cato said 
of his boy fallen in battle might well have been repeated by that father : — 

" Thanks to the gods ! my boy has done his duty. 
Welcoaie, my son ! There set him down, my friends, 
Full in my sight, that I may view at leisure 
The bloody corpse, and count those glorious wounds. 
How beautiful is death when carn'd by virtu© ! 
"Who ■would Bot be that youth ? What pity 'tis 
That we caa die but once to save out country ! 
Why sits that sadness on your brow, my friends? 
I should have blush'd if Cato's house had stood 
Secure and flourish'd ia a civil war." 



The Contkabaxss at Nashville. — The reader will remember that tipon 
the retreat of General Buell's array to Kentucky in pursuit of Bragg, Nash- 
ville was left with but a small garrison, and fortifications were at once com- 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 665 

menced witL alacrity and vigor by the oflEicer in command. Every able- 
bodied negro in the city whom he could lay hands upon was " pressed" and 
put upon the work. Barber-shops and kitchens were visited, and their 
inmates taken " willy-nilly." The Commercial Hotel was thus cleared of 
servants one morning : there was no dinner for many an expectant guest, 
and the house was closed. By such means a force of two thousand negroes 
were soon at work upon Fort Negley. Every description of vehicle — milk- 
wagons, coal-carts, express-wagons, open carriages, &c. — was also impressed. 
Our artist has given the scene on the opposite page. 

To the credit of the colored population be it said, they worked manfully 
and cheerfully, with hardly an exception, and yet lay out upon the works 
of nights under guard, without blankets, and eating only army-rations. 
They worked in squads, each gang choosing its own officers ; and it was 
amusing to hear their captains exclaim to the wheelbarrow-men, " Let dem 
buggies roll, brudder Bones and Felix ;" or, " You niggas ovah dah, let 
dem' picks fall easy, or dey'll hurt somefin," &c. &c. When the attack upon 
the city was threatened, many of these negroes came to the officer of the 
day and asked for arms to help beat off the rebels, — a request he was unable 
to grant, but assigned to them their places behind the works, with axes, 
picks, and spades, in case the enemy should come to close quarters. 



Want of Confidence. — A shrewd negro blacksmith in Shelbyville, Ten- 
nessee, had accumulated by his labor some seven hundred dollars in Con- 
federate shinplasters. Anxious to invest it in something promising a more 
certain return for his toil, he recently gave the entire pile for a sorry-looking 
horse and buggy. A Confederate officer, hearing of the occui-rence, remarked 
to him, — 

" Bill Keyes, you ax"e a fool I" 

" Perhaps I am, sir," replied Bill ; " but I'll be cussed if your Confederate 
stuff shall die on my hands !" 



"Kissing a Nigger." — A young officer upon the staff of one of our 
generals, who was temporarily sojourning at head-quarters in the Zollieoffer 
House, on High Street, Nashville, one day stopped before the door of a 
nelo-hborlno- house to admire and caress a beautiful little girl. She was 
fair, bright, and active; her hair was in ringlets, and she was neatly 
dressed. Imagine the emotions of our kind-hearted officer when a young 
lady remarked to him, with a perceptible sneer, — 

" You seem to be very fond of kissing niggers." 

"Good gracious !" was the startled reply: "you don't call that child a 
nigger, do you ?" 

"Yes, I do. She is nothing else." 

The officer took another glance at the child, who seemed even more fair 
than the young lady, and turned away, reflecting upon some of the " pecu- 
liarities" of Southern society. 



666 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

The I.iisa Sentinel. — A son of the Green Isle, a new member of Colonel 
Gillam's Middle Tennessee Regiment, while stationed at Nashville recently, 
■was detailed on guard-duty on a prominent street of that city. It was his 
first experience at guard-mounting, and he strutted along his beat appa- 
rently with a full appreciation of the dignity and importance of his position. 
As a citizen approached, he shouted, — 

" Halt ! Who comes there?" 

"A citizen," was the response. 

"Advance, citizen, and give the countersign." 

"I haven't the countersign; and, if I had, the demand for it at tJiis time 
and place is something very strange and unusual," rejoined the citizen, 

"An', by the howly Moses, ye don't pass this way at all till ye say 
Bunker Hill," was Pat's reply. 

The citizen, appreciating the "situation," advanced and cautiously whis- 
pered in his ear the necessary words. 

" Right ! Pass on." And the wide-awake sentinel resumed his beat." 



A Dodge for a Pass. — Our general has ordered that officers' and soldiers' 
wives shall stay at home, or, at least, advises them that they had better not 
come out to the army at Murfreesborough. There are no hotels, no nice 
eatables, none of the comforts of life, here. On the contrary, many ugly 
sights and smells will be encountered ; and, on the whole, home will be a 
much more agreeable place. Hence the dear ladies can get no passes to 
come, — sad fact, but very necessary denial. 

But an officer's wife is shrewdy If she can circumvent the epaulet and 
shoulder-straps, 'tis done ; and she takes not a little delight in the operation, 
One of them recently telegraphed from Louisville to General Garfield, Chief of 
Staff, that her husband, an artillery officer, was very sick, — perhaps dying, — 
and that she must see him, and requested the general to authorize the issuing 
to her of a pass to Murfreesborough. The general's heart was touched ; but, 
knowing nothing of the matter, he referred it to Colonel Barnett, Chief of 
Artillery. The colonel, too, sympathized with the distressed wife, and kindly 
sent an orderly out to the husband's battery to inquire into his condition, 
that the devoted wife might be advised thereof. Speedily the husband him- 
self came in, with astonishment depicted in his face. Something's the 
matter, somewhere or somehow, he doesn't exactly know what. 

"How do you do?" asks the Artillery Chief. 

" First-rate, sir." 

"Where have you been of late?" 

"At my battery, — on duty." 

" Have you not been sick lately?" 

"No, indeed! Never had better health in my life." 

"Quite sure of it, are you?" 

"Of course I ara/' 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 667 

"You have been on duty all the time? Haven't you been absent from 
your command at all?" 

" Not a day." 

" Perfectly vrell now, — no consumption, liver-complaint, fever, spleen, or 
Tennessee quickstep? eh?" 

" Certainly not. Why do you ask?" 

In reply to this query the telegram of his anxious wife was handed to 
liim. He read it, looked down and pondered for a moment in silent wonder 
at the ingenuity of woman, then called for a bottle of wine, and a general 
"smile" circulated among the bystanders. The loving wife was informed 
by telegraph that her husband was in no danger, — in fact, was doing 
remarkably well. Thus she was circumvented for a time. Yet, to " vindi- 
cate the truth of history," we must add that she gained her point in some 
other way, — what Yankee wife will not? — and made her visit successfully. 



The following direction upon a letter which passed through the post-office 
from Murfreesborough we quote : — 

"Haste away, old engine, thou fiery steed ! 
Bear me to C. E. Haines with lightning speed: 
You will find him engaged at work on his farm, 
As busy as a bee, and doing no harm, 
While receiving a farmer's hard-earn'd bounty 
From the folks of Clarksborough, Gloucester county, 

New Jersey." 



The Romance of War. — The following order is said to have originated 
at the head-quarters of that correct disciplinarian, Major-General Rose- 
crans : — 

"Head-Quarters Department op the Cumberland, April 17,1863. 

"General :— The general commanding directs me to call your attention to 
a flagrant outrage committed in your command,— a person having been ad- 
mitted inside your lines without a pass and in violation of orders. The case 
is one which calls for your personal attention, and the general commanding 
directs that you deal with the offending party or parties according to law. 

" The medical director reports that an orderly sergeant in Brigadier-Gene- 
ral 's division was to-day delivered of a ta6^,— which is in violation of 

all military law and of the army regulations. No such case has been known 
since the days of Jupiter. 

"You will apply the proper punishment in this case, and a remedy to 
prevent a repetition of the act." 

TuE Overton Family.— At the breaking-out of the rebellion, John Overton 
was one of the wealthiest men in Tennessee. His plantation, seven miles 



t568 army of the cumbeuland, 

south of Nashville, embraced several thousand acres of land, with buildings 
and improvements exhibiting the finest taste. Although the ■whole family 
were known to be violent secessionists, the first blast of war swept by with- 
out injury to them. Their crops were untouched, their groves and lawns 
were unscathed, and, while others felt the iron hand of war, theirs was still 
the abode of luxury and plenty. The plantation was left nominally in the 
care of Mrs. Overton, her husband and sons being in the rebel army. This, 
however, did not prevent her asking and obtaining unlimited protection from 
the Federal authorities. 

Soon after General Negley assumed command of Nashville, information 
was received that a large amount of rebel stores, consisting of horseshoe 
iron and nails, was concealed at this place; and a detachment qj[ the 11th 
Michigan Infantry, under command of Captain Hood, was sent to seize the 
goods. Arriving at the house, situated in a beautiful grove at some distance 
from the road, the captain halted his men outside of the door-yard, caused 
them to order arms and remain in place, and announced himself at the 
door. The summons was answered by a lady, when the following colloquy 
ensued: — 

"Is Mr. Overton at home, madam?" 

"No, sir: he is with the Confederate army," was the lady's answer. 

"I presume he is a rebel, then?" 

"Yes, sir: he is a rebel all over." 

"Well, madam, I wish to see some person who is in charge of the place. 
I am ordered to search for articles contraband of war." 

" I am Mrs. Overton. You can search the place if you wish; but you will 
not find any thing contraband. I wish, however, you would keep the soldiers 
away from the house." 

The captain assured her that no depredations would be committed by the 
soldiers, who were still standing at their arms, and added, — 

" I will commence by searching under the floor of the meat-house." 

The lady opened her eyes with astonishment. Recoveriilg herself, she re- 
plied, — 

" There is no use of having any words about it. You will find some horse- 
shoes there." 

And they were found. About two tons of valuable iron was unearthed 
and turned over to the Government. 

In the fall of 18G2 Rosecrans's victorious army relieved Nashville, and 
remained a few days in the city. Early in December a general advance was 
made, and the left wing of the army encamped on the Overton place, and 
it was then known as "Camp Hamilton." The camp-fires of the Union 
army were lighted on every part of the farm, and the rights of private 
property gave way to the stern necessities of war. Grove and woodland 
resounded with the sturdy strokes of the axeman, and disappeared. Fences 
were destroyed, and the crops and stock were taken for tlie necessary use of 
the army, and receipts given, to be paid when the owner should " establish 
his loyalty." The place which in peaceful days had blossomed as the rose 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 669 

was soon a desolate waste, with its palatial mansion standing "alone in its 
glory." 

The general commanding doubtless chose the camp with reference to its 
strategic importance in his approach on Murfreesborough ; but by the natural 
course of events its rebel owners learned what it is to "sow the storm and 
reap the whirlwind." 



A Rebel Woman Nonplussed. — Last winter a forage-train went out of 
Nashville, and two or three of the Michigan soldiers guarding it called at a 
house for dinner. The woman, ready to take their money and get their 
favor, at once prepared it. While they were eating, she thought it a favor- 
able moment for conversation, and propounded the usual question of Se- 
cessia : — 

" What in the world did all you people come down here to fight us for?" 

" The fact is, madam," quickly answered one of her guests, dropping his 
knife and fork, leaning back in his chair and looking her calmly in the 
face, " we understood your folks were going to free all your negroes and 
send them up North, and we don't want them and won't have them. So 
we've come down here to put a stop to it." 

The old lady was silenced by this spiking of her guns. 



The Overseer and the Watermelons. — While marching from Tus- 
cumbia to Courtland, last summer, with a portion of his command, the late 
Colonel Roberts, of the 42d Illinois Regiment, halted with his escort at a plant- 
ation by the roadside, for refreshment of some kind. No white person was 
about but the overseer, and he was surly and crabbed enough. 

" Are there any watermelons about ?" asked the colonel. 

" I've got none," doggedly answered the overseer. 

"Well, if you haven't any, hasn't somebody on the place?" 

"I don't know. Shouldn't wonder if the niggers had some. You can 
find out by asking them." 

"Look here, sirrah!" exclaimed the gallant colonel, now somewhat irri- 
tated, " these airs you are putting on are about played out in this country. 
Tell your negroes to bring out some of those melons, and do it quick." 

The command was too imperative to be disregarded, and the overseer 
started off. In a few minutes he returned with the negroes and a number 
of fine, large melons. The party ate freely of them, and, when all were dis- 
posed of, the colonel turned to one of the negroes and asked, — 

" Boy, were those your melons ?" 

"Yeas, sah! I growed 'em." 

" All right. What's your charge?" 

"Reck'n dey am wuth a doUah, sah." 

" Cheap enough ! Now, Mr. Overseer, pay that boy a dollar." 

"What for?" growled out the overseer. 



670 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

"Because I tell you to, and because you have acted the dog instead of 
the gentleman. Hand over the dollar forthwith." 

The dollar was paid to Sambo, and the colonel rode off, leaving the over- 
seer standing in the porch, a little wiser, if not a better, man. 



Negro Equality Illustrated. — Quite recently, at a Louisville boarding- 
house, a lady of Northern birth and education, but a bitter rebel, was read- 
ing to a mixed company an absurd account of some Northern women land- 
ing at Hilton Head, South Carolina, and embracing an old negress, calling 
her " sister," &c. The lady was triumphantly vindictive, and exclaimed to 
a Federal captain, — 

"What do you think of that? Isn't that a beautiful specimen of your 
negro equality?" 

The captain was annoyed, and hardly knew what to say. He said nothing, 
in fact, but turned and walked to the window. Glancing out, he saw on the 
opposite sidewalk a group of negroes enjoying themselves in the sun as only 
negroes can. They were of all sizes and all shades of color, — some almost 
white. Smiling at the thought that it was now his turn, he said to the rebel 
^dy,— 

" Will you step to the window a moment ?" 

" Certainly," (suiting the act to the word.) 

"Look there. Do you see that ?" 

" See what, sir ?" 

" Why, that black-yellow-white group on the other side." 

" Certainly I do. What is there strange about it ?" 

" Oh, nothing, I suppose : only one would think there must have been 
considerable 'negro equality practised by the white people of the South, aa 
well as those of the North." 

The lady "retired," and thereafter was somewhat less insulting in her 
demonstrations. 



A Fighting Parson. — Colonel Granville Moody, of the 74th Ohio, is a 
famous Methodist preacher from Cincinnati. He is something over fifty, 
six feet and two or three inches, of imposing presence, with a fine, genial 
face and prodigious vocal range. The reverend colonel, who proved himself 
a fighting parson of the first water, was hit four times at the battle of Mur- 
freesborough, and will carry the marks of battle wheij he goes back to 
the altar. His benevolence justifies his military flock in the indulgence 
of sly humor at his expense ; but he never permits them to disturb hie 
equanimity. Several battle-anecdotes of him are well authenticated. Not 
long ago, General Negley merrily accused him of using heterodox expletives 
in the ardor of conflict. 

" Is it a fact, colonel," inquired the general, " that you told the boys to 
'give 'em hell' ?" 

"How?" replied the colonel, reproachfully: "that's some more of the 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 671 

boys' liilschicf. I told them to give the rebels ' Hail Columbia ;' and they 
have perverted my language." 

The parson, however, had a sly twinkle in the corner of his eye, which 
left his hearers in considerable doubt. 

Our Western circuit-preachers are known as stentors. Where others are 
emphatic, they roar in the fervor of exhortation, especially when they come 
in with their huge " Amen." This fact must be borne in mind to appre- 
ciate the story. The colonel's mind was saturated with piety and fight. 
He had already had one bout with the rebels, and given them " Hail Colum- 
bia." They were renewing the attack. The colonel braced himself for the 
shock. Seeing his line in fine order, he thought he would exhort them 
briefly. The rebels were coming swiftly, (llancing first at the foe, then 
at the lads, he said, quietly, " Now, my boys, fight for your country and 
your God," and, raising his voice to thunder-tones, he exclaimed, in the 
same breath, " Aim low I" Says one of his gallant fellows, " I thought for 
an instant it was a frenzied ejaculation from the profoundest depths of the 
'Amen corner.' " Any day now you may he.ar the lads of the 74th roaring, 
" Fight for your country and your God — aim low \" 



A " Never-did-Any-Thing" Rebel. — Rebels In Tennessee are of as many 
shades and dyes as are the negroes. Some are in the army, some are dodg- 
ing about acting as spies, and some stay at home, invite Union soldiers to 
their houses, treat them kindly, and at night repair to the nearest rebel 
camps and give an account of Federal movements, strength, and, if pos- 
sible, destination. Of all classes of rebels, these " I never did any thing"s 
are regarded by our army as the most contemptible. The following in- 
cident well illustrates their character and disposition. 

About the middle of April last, as a body of our cavalry, under command 
of Colonel Minty, were passing a fine country mansion whose owner was 
known to be one of the heartiest sympathizers with rebellion, the force 
halted for an hour at this house, and the colonel sent to this man for some 
forage. As he did so, this gentleman walked over pompously to that officer 
and presented a " safeguard," showing that he was entitled to the protec- 
tion of the United States Government and that nothing in his possession 
was to be molested. Minty, as a good soldier would, called his meu 
back. Matters went on well for about half an hour, and every thing on his 
premises was held sacred ; when, lo ! a magazine exploded. A detachment 
of " Lincoln hirelings" had had the impudence to desecrate the carpeted 
floor of this hitherto sacred mansion and ruthlessly take therefrom^ two of 
" Jeff's boys," who were neatly ensconced in a cupboard. At this discovery 
the Union troops helped themselves, plentifully, to food for man and beast. 
The planter now stalked out,— not with a dignified and pompous air, as on 
the former occasion, but with " solitary step, and slow,"— and approached the 
colonel, who immediately asked, — 




672 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. ' 

" Well, sir, did you ever do any thing in your life to injure the Govern- 
ment V 

" Wa-all, I reckon not ; and, you see, they are taking all my fodder." 

" Yes, sir ; and I think we'll take you also." 

" Wa-all, now, colonel, you see, sir [Here he was interrupted by 

Colonel Minty.] 

"Yes, sir, I see two rebel soldiers, one of whom I had before in irons, 
but escaped. The other decoyed one of my sergeants, by pledging his honor 
that if he went with him across the field, nothing should happen him ; and 
I have not seen that sergeant since, sir." 

" Them boys you see, sir, one is my nephew and the other a discharged 
soldier." 

" We'll see about that, sir." 

Then, calling up the prisoners, the colonel asked them if they were rebel 
soldiers. Both acknowledged that they were, and belonged to Dick McCann's 
band. The planter hung his head, as Colonel Minty resumed, — 

" Now, sir, what do you think of yourself? Did you ever ' do any thing' 
in your life ? How can a man of your age have the impudence to tell me, 
before these officers and men, that you never aided or abetted the rebellion, 
when you have done every thing in your power to assist McCann, Forrest, 
Morgan, and Wharton ? You have gone further than this, even. You have 
given up your son and horses to McCann, and boasted that you laid him on 
the altar of his country. You are a sorry kind of a Spartan, sir ; but, be- 
fore I leave, allow me to give you this wholesome advice. Do you see that 
railroad ?" 

"I do, sir." 

*' Well, sir, should any thing happen to that road within three miles on 
either side, I will burn your house, and take every thing you have got. Do 
you mind that?" 

The planter looked melancholy, and, after a pause, faintly said, — 

" I will try and do every thing I can to prevent any accidents on the 
road." 

" That will do, sir. You may leave." And he did leave, at a double quick. 



Beating them at their own Game. — Colonel Wilder, of the old 17th 
Indiana Regiment, and now commanding a brigade of mounted infantry, 
is a terror to the rebels. He roams through the country at will, and is 
always where they least expect him. Among other good things, he has 
invented a plan to capture rebel pickets, which is quite original, — certainly 
n«w to the present generation. 

A dozen resolute men advance nearly within sight of the pickets. All 
but one conceal themselves. This man dons a butternut dress and advances. 
He beckons to the pickets. Without suspicion or fear, they come on to meet 
him. Suddenly the rebel picket sees men concealed behind the rocks on 
both sides of him. He is quietly told to uncap his rifle and let it fall with- 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 673 

out any noise. Thus he remains in the road, as though nothing had hap- 
pened, and on comes another and another, until ten or twelve are captured. 
In this way, on a recent occasion, Wharton's pickets were quietly gobbled 
up, and an enemy suddenly appeared before him as though they had dropped 
from the clouds. 



A BRiVE Bor IN Battle.— During the battle of Friday, at Stone River, 
General Rousseau rode up to Loomis's battery, and saw there a youth 
of the battery holding horses, and in the midst of a very tempest of shot 
and shell. He was so unconscious of fear and so elated and excited, that, 
being debarred from better occupation than holding horses, his high spirits 
found vent in shouting out songs and dancing to the music. The general 
was so pleased with his whole deportment that he rode up to him and said, 
"Well done, my brave boy! let me shake hands with you." A few days 
after the fight. General Rousseau visited the camp of the battery, and, men- 
tioning the circumstance to the commanding officer, expressed a desire to see 
the youth again. " Step out, Mclntire," said the officer. The youth came 
forward, blushing deeply. The general again commended his conduct, and 
said, " I shook hands with you on the battle-field ; and now I wish to do h 
again, in the presence of your brother soldiers. May you carry the same 
brave spirit through the war, and come out safely at last, as you are sure to 
come out honorably." The general then again shook his hand warmly, in 
the presence of his officers and of his companions. 



A Pass to Raise Geese. — An old lady at Nashville, country-raised, from 
down in Williamson county somewhere, had long been cooped up in that 
devoted citv, and desired to pass the blockade into Dixie. So she seasoned 
up and roasted a bribe, which she hoped, with a plentiful use of smiles and 
"soft sawder," would gain her point. In due time she arrived at the head 
quarters of Lieutenant Osgood. 

With a cold roast turkey in her haversack, she made a flank movement upon 
the sentinels, and advanced through the crowd. After knocking over two 
or three men present, and treading on the neck of a small dog, she double- 
quicked into the boudoir of the indefatigable lieutenant. 

" Well, madam," says he, "what can I do for you to-day?" 

" Well, I'm hunting for the colonel." 

" Hunting for the colonel? — Colonel who?" 

"Why, Colonel Osgood: I reckon you're he." And at this juncture she 
" slung" the cold roast turkey towards the lieutenant, who was not only 
much astonished, but slightly injured. He recovered himself, however, and 
ejaculated, — 

" That's a. fowl blow, madam." 

" Yes : I reckoned you'd like it, colonel." 

« Yes,"— laughing,— " but I don't like it that way. But what do you 
want, madam?" 

43 



674 ARMY OP THE CUMBERLAND. 

" I -want a pass to " 

" Are you a Union lady 1" 

" Never been nothing else. My old man — I reckon you know the squire — 
he's been here a heap o' times, and " 

"That's all right, madam. Just tell me about the pass: what do you 
want of it ?" 

" Colonel," says she, confidingly, " I want a pass to raise geese." 

"To what?" asked the lieutenant. 

" To raise geese," 

" You have always been a loyal lady ?" asked Osgood. 

"Colonel, I reckon. You see the old man— I reckon you know old 
squire- 



' All right, madam. You have never aided the Confederate Government 
or fed rebel cavalry ?" 

"Well, I reckon if I did the old man — I reckon the squire has been here 
— you know the " 

" No matter about the old man, madam. Have you always been a loyal 
lady ?" 

" Yes, I reckon I have." 

" Well," says Osgood, turning to one of his clerks, "give this woman a 
pass to raise geese !" 



"Rousseau or a Rabbit." — Much sport usually ensued in the camps 
about Murfreesborough, last spring, when a rabbit — of which there were 
many — would be started. There is generally much cheering and excite- 
ment, too, when Major-General Rousseau, who is universally popular, a 
splendid horseman, and always elegantly mounted, rides about the camps. 
Upon hearing a prodigious shout, one evening, near by his head-quarters, 
General Jefferson C. Davis inquired the cause. 

" I can't say exactly, general," replied his aide, after stepping to the tent- 
door ; " but I think it's the boys either after General Rousseau or a rabbit." 



Where the Damage was Done. — Russell Houston, Esq., an old and pro- 
minent citizen of Nashville, and a Union man, had not long ago built him 
an elegant residence, in the suburbs of the city. It occupied, unluckily, a 
knoll, or swell of land, where it was deemed desirable by our engineers to 
build a fort. When apprized, Mr. Houston made no objection : rather he 
encouraged and aided them in their plans in the most cheerful and com- 
mendable manner. One day some rebel ladies were visiting his family, 
and attempted consolation, bitterly exclaiming against this " Yankee van- 
dalism." 

" Ah, madam," he replied to one of them, " these troops have done me 
no harm. It was the firing of the first gun of the rebellion at Charleston 
that destroyed my property I" 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 675 

A Soldier's Idea of the First Day's Battle at Stone River. — "You 
say ' you can't understand about army wings, they being crushed, falling 
back, &c.' Well, here it is, in short. Suppose our army to be like a bird at 
Stone River, head towards Murfreesborough, its body, Thomas's corps, being 
the centre, McCook's corps the right wing, spread wide open, and Critten- 
len's corps, thus spread, the left wing. That will do well enough for illus- 
nation. Well, Bragg's army pile in on McCook's wing, at its tip, and 
tireak off an inch or so by capturing batteries and several hundred of our 
men. And the feathers fly mightily all along that wing, and it is over- 
; owered, and falls back in retreat, j ust as the bird would fold its wing, until 
it laps right up Alongside the centre. That's the way it was done. But 
they didn't move our head nor centre, though, — nary ! Well, the reb cavalry, 
of which they had a powerful slue during this fight, came round on our 
rear on the big Nashville road, whei'e were our hundreds of wagons and 
ambulances. There, we will say, is the bird's tail ; and the supply-wagons, 
and doctors' tools, and niggers, we'll call them the tail-feathers. Now, them 
feathers flew some, you better believe !" 

We are not sure but that such a narration, made by a private to an old 
hoosier at a street-corner, gives a more forcible idea of the general result 
of that battle to many minds than would the most elaborate description. 



Amusing Instance of Rebel Desertion. — After the recent advance of our 
army upon Bragg at Tullahoma, and his retreat, the Pioneer Brigade pushed 
on to Elk River to repair a bridge. While one of its men, a private, was 
bathing in the river, five of Bragg's soldiers, guns in hand, came to the 
bank and took aim at the swimmer, one of them shouting, — 

" Come in here, you Yank, out of the wet !" 

The Federal was quite sure that he was " done for," and at once obeyed 
the order. After dressing himself, he was thus accosted : — 

" You surrender, our prisoner, do you?" 

" Yes; of course I do." 

" That's kind. Now we'll surrender to you 1" And the five stacked arms 
before him, their spokesman adding, — 

" We've done with 'em, and have said to old Bragg, ' good-by !' Secesh is 
played out. Now you surround us and take us into your camp." 

This was done accordingly, and is but one of hundreds of instances of 
wholesale desertion coming to the knowledge of our officers during the past 
two months— July and August— in Lower Tennessee. 



Guerrillas upon the Railroads.— One of the surest means of delay, if 
flot of destruction, to the Federal armies, as the rebel enemy supposed, was 
the destruction of railroads in the rear of our forces. To maintain such 
avenues of communication has cost the Army of the Cumberland hundreds 
#f lives and countless days of careful, wearisome guarding and scouting. 



676 ARMi' OF THE CUMBERLAND, 

As a ■whole, our success in this regard is really wonderful. But once hag 
Morgan succeeded in damaging the Nashville & Louisville Railroad to any 
extent: then he required almost an army, which stopped all travel upon that 
road for some ten days, and delayed the forwarding of stores for about four 
weeks. Happily, the Cumberland River suddenly rose to a fair stage about 
that time, and the rebels took nothing by their motion. 

Our artist has given, in the foregoing plate, a scene which occurred last 
winter upon the railroad above named, at a point some forty miles north ot 
Nashville, and at a time when that road was not so systematically and 
effectually guarded as at present. A band of some sixty rebels, marauders, 
said to be lawless residents and " independent" cavalry, misplaced a rail 
near by a sharp curve, and secreted themselves in the edge of the forest 
near by. The train was coming down at a slow and precautionary rate of 
speed, as the country thereabout was favorable for guerrilla operations, and 
the engine, when it arrived at that spot, toppled over upon one side, no 
very great damage, however, ensuing from the stoppage. The guerrillas 
were now seen with guns aimed, kneeling in a line, to appear as formidable 
as possible, and they fired a deafening volley at the train, but killed no 
one. They probably fired overhead to frighten rather than to hurt the 
passengers. They then proceeded to rob the passengers indiscriminately. 
While thus quite leisurely employed, and in burning the cars, a bridge- 
guard of brave men of our army, stationed a mile below, hastened up on 
the double-quick, and when within sight the robbers made ofi" at the top of 
their speed. 

Resolved to put a stop to such proceedings, the commander of the post at 
Gallatin sent up a force and thoroughly scouted through that region, bring- 
ing into his camp every male citizen, and keeping them confined for several 
days. The old town of Gallatin was at once filled with their distressed 
wives, parents, and daughters. Developments were made convicting several 
of the men thus arrested : and it was soon after hinted to the writer that 
those persons were summarily "sent to tlie front." The "front" to which 
they were marched is reported as only half a mile, or thereabouts, in the 
rear of Gallatin, where trees abounded with favoi-ably projecting limbs. 
At all events, those people were taught a severe lesson, and to apparent 
good purpose, as a second affair of the kind has not occurred. 



A Battle-Field War-Couxcil. — At Stone River, during the evening of 
December 31, several of the generals of the Army of the Cumberland 
assembled at the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief. It was a mo- 
mentous occasion. Our right wing, comprising more than one-third of our 
whole force, had been driven back with great loss. The generals arrived 
after dark at the tent of their commander, near the torn and bloody battle- 
ground, yet reeking with the dead. Each reported as to the status of his 
forces, and then, after other brief remarks of a personal character, conver- 
sation gradually subsided. General Rosecraus was the most conversational 



INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES. 677 

and cheerful, and had a smile and pleasant word for all. Excepting himself 
and Generals Thomas and Van Cleve, our commanders are young in years, 
and to most of them this was their first, and to all their greatest, battle. 
Hence their gravity and reticence — as certainly became them — upon this 
occasion. It was noticeable that they volunteered no opinions as to the 
best course for the morrow, whether to attempt to hold the present ground, 
to advance, or to retreat to Nashville. The supply-trains had been sent 
back to that city during the day by the general commanding, to relieve 
himself from the task of guarding them from the horde of rebel cavalry. 
Thus left almost empty-handed, retreat to Nashville, even during that night 
if necessary, was a course not entirely beyond reason, the enemy's superior 
force and nearness to his supplies considered. 

If any of our generals at this conference had such thoughts or opinions, 
they certainly would not have then advanced them. It was a time and 
occasion — a turning-point — that rarely happens in a lifetime or a century. 
Even the sage General Thomas, now calm and placid in manner as a summer 
eve, waited to hear from his chief, and a stiffness pervaded the assembly 
until General Rosecrans broke the spell. 

" Gentlemen," said he, — and the substance of his remarks is given us 
from recollection, — " we have come out to fight and to win this battle, and 
WE SHALL DO IT. Truc, WO havc been a little mixed up to-day ; but we won't 
mind that. The enemy failed in all his attempts after we found what he 
was driving at. Our supplies may run short, but we will have out our trains 
again to-morrow. "We will keep right on, and eat corn for a week but what 
we win ihi3 battle. We can and will do it !" 

As the general advanced in his remarks, he became the more warmly in 
earnest. The effect of his words upon his ofiicers was marked and exhila- 
rating. All restraint was at once removed, now that their course was fully 
settled, and plans for the morrow soon engaged general attention. 

Candor requires us to state that, in all probability, had General Rosecrans 
determined differently, — had he upon this occasion taken a dark view of the 
situation, and whispered words of caution and favored a prudential retreat, 
— our army would have fallen back ingloriously behind the forts at Nashville, 
and thus, unquestionably, Tennessee and Kentucky would not be as they 
are to-day, entirely free from rebel armies, and the Gulf States threatened 
from the West, but, on the contrary, they would now be the strongest 
sections of the so-called Southern Confederacy. Is there any impropriety, 
then, we ask, in classing this instance with those recorded in the world's 
history, where one master-spirit has saved an army and made a successful 
campaign, and thus proven himself a prominent instrument in solving the 
destiny of his country ? 



ARMY POETRY. 



The pensiveness and quiet of camp-life not unfrequently induce a melan- 
choly mood, which finds solace in p'oetry. Songs and song-books are in 
every camp, and many a soldier of literary turn gives expression to his 
pent-up feelings in verse, ranging from the machine order through all the 
intermediate grades up to the truest and most soul-thrilling poetry. From 
a quantity of such productions we select the following as specimens of the 
grave and gay, the sentimental and comical. We do not present them as 
by any means specimens of a high order of poetry. The number ■ and 
variety might be indefinitely extended ; but these are deemed sufficient to 
fully represent the Army of the Cumberland in its poetical aspect. 

The following lines are said to have been found, in manuscript, in the 
pocket of a dead rebel on the battle-field of Stone River. All that is known 
of him is that he was probably a Tennesseean. The lines, we presume, ar« 
original : — 

DISAPPOINTMENT. 



I 



My song lias fled, 

My muse is dead, 
And woe beshrouds my way, 

And the early crow. 

And the herd's deep low, 
Betide a gloomy day. 

For how oould I, 

With an endless sigh, 
Be ever happy more. 

With the hope that's fled, 

And the no you've said, 
Feel as I felt before ? 

Adieu ! fair muse; 

Thy charms I lose; 
With a tear and a sigh thou'rt gone; 

And my hope sinks deep 

In the night of sleep, 
And yields to thy magic wand. 

67S 



What good's a light 

In a dreary night, 
If its rays afford no cheer? 

And why pursue 

Its golden hue. 
If each step is trod in fear? 

Oh, woe the thought 
That ever brought 

On me the fatal blow ! 
In my restless sleep 
I dream and weep, 

Because it fail'd me so ! 

Yet why this chill 
My heart should fill 

And bow my head with grief? 
Doth not the field 
More flowers yield 

Than's gather'd in the shoaf ? 



ARMY POETRY. 



679 



Look o'er the plain, 

Along the lane, 
And on the grassy lawn. 

And by the brook. 

In the little nook 
Where plays the lovely fawn. 

The dew-drop there, 

So sweet and fair, 
Just opening to the gaze: 

I'll from it sip. 

With my own lip. 
The charm where its sweetness lays 

The rose-bud, too, 
There brings to view 
Ita sweet and lovely form ; 



And as it blows 
It gently throws 
Its fragrance to the storm. ' 

And though a sting 
A thorn may bring, 

She's queen of flowers still : 
The little pain 
Grows sweet again, 

And all's a joyous thrill. 

Then fare thee well! 

My joys foretell 
Yon blossom's waiting now; 

I'll off to the grove 

With my own fond love. 
And plant a kiss on her brow. 



M. 



A PRIVATE in the Army of the Cumberland thus protests against that 
slighting spirit of contempt which finds expression in the words, " only a 
private." Who will say that the author of these lines has not proven 
himself immensely the superior of many a vain-glorious coxcomb who 
would no sooner think of comparing himself with a " private" than with 
a beggar ? 

" ONLY A PEIVATE." 



" 0\E man kill'd in the skirmish to-day !" 
He was *' only a private," they say ; 

He was " only a private" ! — Oh, how 
Could they dare thus to speak of the dead 
For our country so nobly who bled, — 

So deserving a laurell'd brow ? 

Ah, perhaps we have harden'd our hearts 
UntU death no impression imparts, 

Nor the sorrow and anguish of friends ; 
He was " only a private ;" — 'tis sad 
That his valor such slight notice had ; 

Now his body with common earth 
blends. 

Does a father enfeebled with years, — 
Or a mother all trembling in tears, — 

A dear sister, whose love is a gem 
Of the purest, — or brother, — in vain 
Keep a watching for him? Ne'er again 

la this world he'll return unto them. 



Are there orphans awaiting neglect? 
Does a widow her husband expect? 

Is it known at his home how he died ? — 
How he bravely with face to the foe 
From a bullet received the fell blow. 

When life sail'd on the ebbing red tide ? 

By the river now classical made, 

On the Cumberland's banks, he was laid, — 

By his comrades laid sadly away : 
A plain hillock they fashion'd with care. 
And then planted an evergreen there 

To remember him, fallen that day. 

Let us hope in the region above 
He enjoyeth a fulness of love 

Often grudged or denied him in this. 
May a mercy as tender as great 
Ope in heaven the pearliest gate, 

And admit him an angel to bliss. 

MUEFEEESBOKOCGH, Tesn., Feb. 17, 1S63. 



1 



680 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



As a specimen of the very common article of " machine poetry," the fol- 
lowing is passable. 

EATTLE OP STONE KIVEE. 

By a Private of Company F, 27th Regiment Illinois Volunteers. 



Come, freemen all, both great and small, 

And listen to my story, 
And, while our country is our theme, 

We'll sing about her glory. 
I guess you've heard how Braxton Bragg 

Into Kentucky paddled, 
And how at Perryville he fought. 

And then he quick "skedaddled." 

And how he thought, in Tennessee, 

At Murfreesborough seated, 
The rout of all the Union hosts 

Would quickly be completed. 
But Rosecrans, the conqueror. 

Had Buell superseded, 
And justly thought this boasting Bragg 

A whipping surely needed. 

And so he thought the holidays 

The proper time for action, 
To try this boasting rebel's strength 

And drive him from this section. 
On Christmas day our orders came. 

And to the general handed. 
McCook, a hero known to fame. 

Our gallant corps commanded. 

Near Nolensvillo we met the foe, — 

They thought, securely seated. 
Our batteries let a few shell go. 

And fast the rebs retreated. 
So on we went, on victory bent. 

To view old Bragg's position ; 
We brought some pills to cure his ills, 

■With Rosey for physician. 

At break of day on the next mora. 

While the old year was dying, 
The rebel force advanced their hosts 

To where our right was lying. 
And now the news is quickly borne, — 

The foe our right is turning ! 
In countless numbers, on they come. 

All efforts swiftly spurning ! 

But as the foe appear? so soon. 
In full and open view, sirs. 



Brave Houghtaling plays them a tune 
Called Yankee-doodle-do, sirs. 

And as the enemy bore down 
On Sheridan's division, 

We fed them with the best we had. 
Gave bullets for provision. 

Now on three sides the foe he rides 

Triumphant, to our grief ; 
Brave Negley then, with gallant men. 

Quick flies to our relief. 
Firm as a rock brave Palmer stands. 

Our centre firm securing. 
While Rousseau's men, with steady aiiDp 

A deadly fire are pouring. 

Upon our left bold Crittenden — 

The Union hosts reviving. 
As we can hear by cheer on cheer — 

The foe is swiftly driving. 
On every hand we make a stand, 

All steady, firm, and trne, sirs; 
At close of eve rings out the shout ? 

This day shall rebels rue, sirs. 

But, while that shout is ringing out, 

'Tis mingled with our pain, 
To think of our brave gallant men 

Now lying with the slain. 
Brave Sill lies there, all cold and bare, 

With Garesch6 so brave. 
And Roberts, Schaoffer, — honored names: 

They fill a hero's grave. 

Sad duty this, to mention ono 

We intimately knew, — 
Our Harrington, beloved by all. 

So gallant, brave, and true. 
He fell where brave men wish to fall. 

Where loudest sounds the battle. 
Where stoutest hearts might stand appalled 

Mid thundering cannon's rattle. 

And, though his voice is still'd in death, 

We seem to hear his cry. 
As cheering on his brave command,^ — 

" My boys, that flag stand by." 



ARMY POETRY. 



681 



On New-Year's day, as people say, 
Bragg show'd his full intention 

To drive us off, — make us the scoff 
Of all this mighty nation. 

But Rosey knew a thing or two, 

And made him quick knock under, — 
Gave him to feel the true-edged steel, 

Mid storms of Yankee thunder. 
Says Bragg, " I'm sad : my cause is bad, 

And so, to save my bacon, 
I will retreat, and save defeat ; 

For Rosey can't be taken." 

So, while our men were strengthening 

Where we were situated. 
To make secure, and victory sure, 

Old Bragg evacuated. 



Now let our songs ascend on high 

To the All-Wise as giver. 
And Rosey's name we'll crown with fame. 

As hero of Stone River. 

AVhen those we love request a sign 

For words as yet unspoken. 
That sign shall be. Remember me, 

A Rosey wreath for token. 
And, now, may roues crown our land. 

May blissful peace soon come, sirs. 
May Bragg-ing traitors soon be damn'd, 

And we in peace at home, sirs. 

Then, boys, fill up the brimming cup. 

We'll toast the Union ever : — 
Our health, the man that can Bragg tan. 

The hero of Stone River. 



We make room for another excellent jingle of camp-rhymes. Our reader, 
at his peaceful and comfortable fireside, can but faintly realize the pleasure 
— yes, " solid enjoyment" — which our soldiers derive from the jovial evening 
camp-song, at times ! 

"THE ELEPHANT." 

By Tent No. 1, Company E, 42d Indiana Volunteers. 

Our Uncle Samuel keeps a show, most wondrous and most rare. 
That's fiU'd with every sort of beast to please a man or scare ; 
And to find this famous show of his the people came from far. 
And march'd down South to see the menagerie of war. 
A lot of us raw hoosiers from " The Pocket" thought we'd go 
And have a three-years sight at this strangely wondrous show : 
So we shoulder'd up our muskets, and, with knapsacks on our backs. 
We travell'd in Kentucky, but saw neither beast nor tracks. 

At last we heard the show had moved away to Tennessee : 

So oflF we started on some boats, to see what we could see. 

And down at Wartrace, in the brush, whore Southern sunrays glance, 

A few who started in our crowd beheld " the monkey dance." 

But then the beast we wish'd to see, somehow, we couldn't find, 

For 'twas "the Elephant" we search'd, with ever-curious mind; 

So off to Alabama's soil we travell'd for a while, 

And trudged and tramp'd and picketed o'er many a Southern mile. 

Now Bragg and Buell own'd the beast, — a partnership concern,— 

And, as we could not find him South, we thought we would return. 

So northward we began to march : at last we sat us down. 

To rest a bit and eat a bite, in Louisville's great town. 

Then General Buell fix'd the show, and bade us march a while. 

And said we'd see " the Hlephaut" short of a hundred mile. 



682 ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 

So ofiF we tramp'd toward Perryville, and when we got down there 
We saw the " Baby Elephant" cut capers fit to scare. 
Although a Bahy Elephant, he was a vicious beast, 
And never could be tamed by man, — the rebels thought, at least. 

But General Buell soon sold out, and General Rosecrans bought, 
And then the beast was bound to thrive, — at least, the soldiers thought; 
For Bragg and " Rosey," well we knew, would make the Bahy grow. 
And Bragg at last pick'd out a place to have another show. 
The place was on Stone River, near Murfreesborough town. 
And to see the show the people came from all the country round : 
Some forty thousand Federals came, with steady step and slow, 
And fifty thousand rebels stay'd to see the famous show. 

And there they saw " the Elephant." My gracious ! how he'd grown 
Since first we saw him roaming in Kentucky all alone ! 
We saw him in the cedar grove, we saw him on the plain. 
And some who saw him on that day will see him ne'er again. 
And now, whene'er we hear a man talk loud about his might, 
And tell about his bravery, and what he'd do in fight, 
And tell how many foes he'd whip and make them run and pant. 
We simply say, You ne'er have seen the famous " Elephant." 



" The Old Union Wagon," written and composed by Rev. John H. Lozier, 
chaplain of the 37th Indiana Volunteers, is an admirable specimen of a 
popular patriotic army melody. It was written at the head-quarters of 
General Negley's division, at Camp Hamilton, on the " Overton Plantation," 
five miles from Nashville, Tennessee. It was originally intended merely aa 
a camp-song in answer to " The Southern Wagon," which the " Secesh" 
damsels are always ready to sing for the "Yankees." It was afterwards 
published by John Church, Jr., of Cincinnati, as sheet-music, and was sung 
with great 4clat at Pike's Opera-House, at th& immense Union meeting 
held there to respond to the resolutions sent by the Army of the Cumber- 
land to the people of the North. It is now having a great run in the West 
and the army. The words are as follow: — 

THE OLD UNION WAGON. 

In Uncle Sam's dominion, in eighteen sixty-one. 

The fight between Secession and Union was begun : 

The South declared they'd have the "rights" which Uncle Sam denied, 

Or in their secesh wagon they'd all take a ride. 

Hurrah for the wagon, the old Union wagon ! 

We'll stick to our wagon and all take a ride ! 

The makers of our wagon were men of solid wit; 

They made it out of " Charter Oak," that would not rot or split; 

Its wheels are of material the strongest and the best. 

And two are named the North and South, and two the East and West. 



ARMY POETRY. 683 

Our wagon-6ed is strong enough for any " revolution," 

In fact, 'tis the " hull" of the " old Constitution ;" 

Her coupling's strong, her axle's long, and, anywhere you get her. 

No monarch's frown can " back her down," no traitor can iipaet her. 

This good old Union wagon the nation all admired ; 

Her wheels had run for fourscore years and never once been " tired;" 

Her passengers were happy, as along her way she whirl'd, 

For the good old Union wagon was the glory of the world ! 

But when old Abram took command, the South wheel got displeased, 
Because ihe public fat was gone that kept her axle greased; 
And when he gather'd up the reins and started on his route, 
She plunged into secession and knock'd some "felloes" out! 

Now, while in this secession mire the wheel was sticking tightly, 

Some tory passengers got mad and cursed the driver slightly ; 

But Abram "couldn't see it," so he didn't heed their clatter: 

" There's too much black mud on the wheel," says he : — " that^a what's the matter.' 

So Abram gave them notice that in eighteen sixty-three. 
Unless the rebels " dried it up," he'd set their niggers free, 
And then the man that led the van to fight against his nation 
Would drop his gun, and home he'd run, to fight against starvation. 

When Abram said he'd free the slaves that furnish'd their supplies. 
It open'd Northern traitors' mouths and Southern traitors' eyes. 
" The slaves," said they, " will run away, if you thus rashly free them !" 
But Abram " guess'd perhaps they'd best go home and oversee them." 

Around our Union wagon, with shoulders to the wheel, 

A million soldiers rally, with hearts as true as steel; 

And of all the generals, high or low, that help to save the nation. 

There's none that strikes a harder blow than General Emancipation ! 

Hurrah for the wagon, the old Union wagon ! 

We'll stick to our wagon and all take a ride ! 



The following effusion was found in a rebel mail-package captured upon 
the person of a Confederate spy and containing some two hundred letters 
from rebeldom to friends within our lines. "Whatever else may be said of 
it, no one can question its entire originality. The poet seems to be heartily 
sick of the war, and gives vent in verse to his feelings, — no prose being 
strono' enough to do them justice. We give " his piece," with all its beau- 
ties, verbatim et literatim. Upon an outer fold of the soiled manuscript is 
written, " W R Brown to Sally Brown a song composed by me." 

UPONi THE, WAR; 



This is a War of dreadful seourrage 
OF which it takes a man of oourrage 
It is a war of subgugation 
OF which there is no cessation 

And we are all on the go dowi^ 



This is a war of great invasion, 
For which there is no good occasion 
It is war of confiscation 
OF whioh there is no obligation 

And we are all on the go down 



684 



ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 



Tbis is a War of great confusion 
OF Yankey foolisli vain intrusion 
It is a war of vain Ambition 
And caused Amerricas bad condition 

And we are all on the go down 

This is a War of death and Blood 
OF which there cant be any good 
It is a War, that's, verry bad 
Oh let it cease and all be glad 

Or we are all on the go down 

This is a War, that's, long beginding 
OF which no man can tell the ending 
It is a War that's fast and slow 
It brings the high and lofty low 

And we are all on the go down. 

This is a AVar of dreadful borrow 
Which causes Weeping griefe and Sorrow 
This is a War while womens moarning 
Men are seffering dicing groaning 

And we are all on the go down 

This is a War we all regret 

OF which too many are inclined to fret 



You take it easy and be resigned 
For in this War we are all confined 

And we are all on the go down 

This is a War, the Prophets say 
OF which the south shall gain the day 
But the Lord hath willed it so to bee 
That none hath gainded it yet we sec 

And we are all on the go down 

This War has caused the darkest Cloud 
And ruined Amerrica that once was proud 
And Wrapted a great and mighty crowd 
OF once happy Amerrica's sons in shroud 
And we are all on the go down 

This is a War we all must know 
Thats Rageing Fast and ending slow 
While ambition excitement rageing high 
Its bringing want starvation nigh 

And we are all on the go down 

This W'ar ; Oh Lord do let it cease 
And this people speak lasting peace 
And instead of death sorrow and sin 
Religion peace health and life begin 

For we arc all on the go down. 



BATTLE OF STONE RIYER. 



©fliciat Stprt of Slnjor-d5ciicral Wm. f . foswrmis. 



HEAP-Qr\RTERS Department of the Cumberland 
MUBFREESEOROUGH, TENNESSEE, lebfuary 12, 18W. 



Gf,xer.l:-As the sub-reports are now nearly all in, I have the honor to 
submit! for the information of the general-in-chief. the -bj^ed report wxth 
accompanying sub-reports, maps, and statistical rolls of the battle ot btone 

^^To'a proper understanding of this battle, it will be necessary to state the 

PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS AND PREPARATIONS 

Assuming command of the army, at Louisville, on the 27th ^ay °f 0^\°^J^ 
it was found concentrated at Bowling Green and Glasgow, ^ ft^nt abou one 
hundred and thirty miles from Louisville ; from ^^^ff ^'/fJVaS'ibe 
with ammunition, supplies, and clothing, they ^"J^, °" ^°,f Novem^ a 
advance-corps reaching that place on the "?«™"g ^^^ ^^? { j^^^ I^ovember, 

distance of one hundred - ^^^''^iSiTs Th fi" t Mng o be done was to 
At this distance from my base of supplies, the hi st J^^S j^j ^ ^^^^^, 

provide for the subsistence of the troops, ^^^ open «ie Lou sviUe^J^ 

br::iicJ^^-^;s\^=»^ 

Sn^:t ---le, and .^^^^^^ ,,,, ,.3 bent 

toXii^ ^^;:^^nr^^e.army, ^j-^:^:^^^::^^::^ 

plenish the depot at Nashvilew.h needful supplies to ins^ ^^ ^^^ 

^J^:TS.S^l^S:^r^^o'l^ th^ -r., the road was 

cavalry force almost within the f ^t'oW us froS tL be^inni'ng, that, we 
the entire country around us ^^J/'J'^/Td^Y an inexorable conscription, 
should be confronted by Bragg s army, re^^mt^^ ^ ^^ j^j^.^j^e cavalry to 

and aided by clouds of ^^^^^^^^^^J"^"' ^"/"^tntry serv ce. The evident difii- 
avoid the hardships of conscription ^'^^^^/"/^v J^ ^^ainst such a force, and 
culties and labors of an advance intx, i^^;^^«°^^';y;J7;Cieh we were connected 
at such a distance from our base of operations w t n wn .^^^^^ 

by a single precarious thread, made it ^^^^Jl)' l^f'Z.Ztl^^^^^ us,- 
the encnty to travel over as much as P^/^^^^!*^^ ^.^^^^^^i^^'f our foi^ces, and sub- 

-^ - ti?;^:s:7^^anT^rtr^irs^^ - -- -^ 

diShing for ul the dangerous consequences of a deteat. ^^^ 



686 BATTLE or STONE RIVER: 

The means taken to obtain this end were eminently successful. The enemy, 
expecting us to go into winter quarters at Nashville, had prepared his own 
winter quarters at Murfreesborough, with the hope of possibly making them at 
Nashville, and had sent a large cavalry force into West Tennessee to annoy 
Grant, and another large force into Kentucky to break up the railroad. In the 
absence of these forces, and with adequate supplies in Nashville, the move- 
ment was judged opportune for an advance on the rebels. Polk's and Kirby 
Smith's forces were at Murfreesborough, and Hardee's corps on the Shelbyville 
and Nolensville pike, between Ti'iune and Eagleville, with an advance-guard 
at Nolensville ; while our troops lay in front of Nashville, on the Franklin, 
Nolensville, and Murfreesborough turnpikes. 

THE PLAN OF THE MOVEMENTS 

Was as follows : — 

McCook, with three divisions, to advance by the Nolensville pike to Triune. 

Thomas, with two divisions (Negley's and Rousseau's), to advance on his 
right, by the Franklin and Wilson pikes, threatening Hardee's right, and then 
to fall in by the cross-roads to Nolensville. 

Crittenden, with Wood's, Palmer's, and Van Cleve's divisions, to advance by 
the Murfreesborough pike to Lavergne. 

With Thomas's two divisions at Nolensville, McCook was to attack Hardee at 
Triune ; and if the enemy reinforced Hardee, Thomas was to support McCook. 

If McCook beat Hardee, or Hardee retreated, and the enemy met us at Stewart's 
Creek, five miles south of Lavergne, Crittenden was to attack him ; Thomas 
was to come in on his left flank, and McCook, after detaching a division to 
pursue or observe Hardee, if retreating south, was to move, with the remainder 
>f his force, on their roar. 

THE MOVEMENT 

Began on the morning of the 26th of December. McCook advanced on the 
Nolensville pike, skirmishing his way all day, meeting with stiff resistance 
from cavalry and artillery, and closing the day by a brisk fight, which gave 
him possession of Nolensville and the hills one and a half miles in front, cap- 
turing one gun, by the 101st Ohio and 15th Wisconsin Regiments, his loss this 
day being about seventy-five killed and wounded. 

Thomas followed on the right, and closed Negley's division on Nolensville 
pike, leaving the other (Rousseau's) division on the right flank. 

Crittenden advanced to Lavergne, skirmishing heavily on his front, ever a 
rough country, intersected by forests and cedar-brakes, with but slight loss. 

On the 26th, General McCook advanced on Triune ; but his movement was re- 
tarded by a dense fog. 

Crittenden had orders to delay his movements until McCook had reached 
Triune and developed the intentions of the enemy at that point, so that it 
could be determined which Thomas was to support. 

McCook arrived at Triune, and reported that Hardee had retreated, and that 
he had sent a division in pursuit. 

Crittenden began his advance about eleven o'clock a.m., driving before him 
a brigade of cavalry, supported by ]\Ianey"s brigade of rebel infantry, and 
reached Stewart's Creek, the 3d Kentucky gallantly charging the rear- 
guard of the enemy, and saving the bridge, on which had been placed a pile 
of rails that had been set on fire. This was Saturday night. 

McCook having settled the fact of Hardee's retreat, Thomas moved Negley's 
division on to join Crittenden at Stewart's Creek, and moved Rousseau's to 
Nolensville. 

On Sunday the troops rested, except Rousseau's division, which was ordered 
to move on to Stewartsborough, and AVillich's brigade, which had pursued 
Hardee as far as Riggs's Cross-Roads, and had determined the fact that Hardee 
had gone to Murfreesborough, when they returned to Triune. 

On Monday morning McCook was ordered to move from Triune to Wil- 



OrnCIAL REPORT OP GENERAL ROSECRANS. 687 

kerson's Cross-Roads, six miles from Murfreesborough, leaving a brigade at 
Triune. 

Crittenden crossed Stewart's Creek by the Smyrna bridge, on the main Mur- 
freesborough pike, and Negley by the ford, two miles above, — their whole force to 
advance on Murfreesborough, distant eleven miles. 

Rousseau was to remain at Stewart's Creek until his train came up, and pre- 
pare himself to follow. 

McCook reached Wilkerson's Cross-Roads by evening, with an advance bri- 
gade at OveraU's Creek, saving and holding the bridge, meeting with but little 
resistance. 

Crittenden's corps advanced, Palmer leading, on the Murfreesborough pike, 
followed by Negley, of Thomas's corps, to within three miles of Murfreesborough, 
having had several brisk skirmishes, driving the enemy rapidly, saving two 
bridges on the route, and forcing the enemy back to his intrenchments. 

About three o'clock p.m., a signal-message coming from the front, from Gene- 
ral Palmer, said that he was in sight of Murfreesborough, and the enemy were 
running. An order was sent to General Crittenden to send a division to occupy 
Murfreesborough. 

This led General Crittenden,' on reaching the enemy's front, to order Harker's 
brigade to cross the river at a ford on his left, where he surprised a regiment 
of Breckinridge's division, and drove it back on its main lines, not more than 
five hundred yards distant, in considerable confusion ; and he held this position 
until General Crittenden was advised, by prisoners captured by Harker's bri- 
gade, that Breckinridge was in force on his front, when, it being dark, he ordered 
the brigade back across the river, and reported the circumstances to the com- 
manding general on his arrival, to whom he apologized for not having carried 
out the order to occupy Murfreesborough. The general approved of his action, 
of course, the order to occupy Murfreesborough having been based on the in- 
formation received from General Crittenden's advance division that the enemy 
were retreating from Murfreesborough. 

Crittenden's corps, with Negley's division, bivouacked in order of battle, dis- 
tant seven hundred yards from the enemy's intrenchments, our left extending 
down the river some five hundred yards. The Pioneer Brigade, bivouacking 
still lower down, prepared three fords, and covered one of them, while Wood's 
division covered the other two. 

Van Cleve's division being in reserve, on the morning of the 30th Rousseau, 
with two brigades, was ordered down early from Stewart's Creek, leaving one 
brig.tde there and sending another to Smyrna to cover our left and rear, and 
took his place in reserve in rear of Palmer's right, while General Negley 
moved on through the cedar-brakes until his right rested on the Wilkerson 
pike. The Pioneer Corps cut roads through the cedars for his ambulances and 
ammunition- wagons. 

The commanding general remained with the left and centre, examining the 
ground, while General McCook moved forward from Wilkerson's Cross-Roads, 
slowly and steadily, meeting with heavy resistance, fighting his way from Over- 
all's Creek until he got into position, with a loss of one hundred and thirty-five 
killed and wounded. j. .j j 

Our small division of cavalry — say three thousand men — had been divided 
into three parts, of which General Stanley took two, and accompanied General 
McCook, fighting his way across from the Wilkerson to the Franklin pike and 
below it. Colonel Zahn's brigade leading gallantly, and meeting with siich 
heavy resistance that McCook sent two brigades from Johnson's division, which 
succeeded in fighting their way into position, while the 3d Brigade, which 
had been left at Triune, moved forward from that place and arrived at night- 
fall near General McCook's head-quarters. Thus, on the close of the 30th the 
troops had all got into position. . 

At four o'clock in the afternoon. General McCook had reported his arrival 
on the Wilkerson pike, joining Thomas,— the result of the combat in the after- 
noon, near Grieson's house, and the fact that Sheridan was in position there, 
that his right was advancing to support the cavalry,— also that Hardee's corps, 
with two divis-ons of Polk's, was on his front, extending down towards the 
Salem pike. 



688 BATTLE OF STONE RIVER : 

Without any map of the ground, which was to us terra incognita, when General 
McCook infoi'med tlie general commanding that his corps was facing strongly 
to the east, the general commanding told him that such a direction to his line 
did not appear to him a proper one, but that it ought, with the exception of his 
left, to face mucli more nearly south, with Johnson's division in reserve, but 
that this matter must be confided to him, who knew the ground over which he 
bad fought. 

At nine o'clock p.m. the corps commanders met at the head-quarters of the 
general commanding, who explained to them the following 

PLAN OF THE BATTLE. 

McCook was to occupy the most advantageous position, refusing his right aa 
much as practicable and necessary to secure it, to receive the attack of the 
enemy, or, if that did not come, to attack himself, sufficient to hold all the 
force on his front. 

Thomas and Palmer to open with skirmishing, and gain the enemy's centre 
and left as far as the river. 

Crittenden to cross Van Cleve's division at the lower ford, covered and sup- 
ported by the sappers and miners, and to advance on Breckinridge. 

Wood's division to follow by brigades, crossing at the upper ford, and, moving 
on Van Cleve's right, to carry every thing before them into Murfreesborough. 

This would have given us two divisions against one, and, as soon as Breckin- 
ridge had been dislodged from his position, the batteries of Wood's division, 
taking position on the heights east of Stone River, in advance, would see the 
enemy's works in reverse, would dislodge them, and enable Palmer's division 
to press them back and drive them westward across the river or through the 
woods, while Thomas, sustaining the movement on the centre, would advance 
on the right of Palmer, crushing their right, and Crittenden's corps, advancing, 
would take Murfreesborough, and then, moving westward on the Franklin 
road, get in their flank and rear, and drive them into the country, towards 
Salem, with the prospect of cutting off their retreat and probably destroying 
their army. 

It was explained to them that this combination, insuring us a vast superiority 
on our left, required for its success that General jMcCook should be able to hold 
his position for three hours; that, if necessary to recede at all, he should recede 
as he had advanced on the preceding day, slowly, as steadily, refusing his right, 
thereby rendering our success certain. 

Having thus explained the plan, the general commanding addressed General 
McCook as follows: — 

"You know the ground; you have fought over it; you know its diflSculties. 
Can you hold your present position for three hours?" 

To which General McCook responded, — 

"Yes; I think I can." 

The general commanding then said, — 

"I don't like the facing so much to the east, but must confide that to you, 
who know the ground. If you don't think your present the best position, 
change it. It is only necessary for you to make things sure." 

The officers then returned to their commands. 

At daylight on the morning of the 31st, the troops breakfasted, and stood to 
their arms, and by seven o'clock were preparing for the 



The movement began on the left by Van Cleve, who covered the crossing at 
the lower fords. Wood prepared to sustain and follow him. The enemy mean- 
wliile had prepared to attack General McCook, and by six and a half o'clock 
advanced in heavy columns, regimental front, his left attacking Willich's and 
Kirk's brigades, of Johnson's division, which were, after a sharp but fruitlesi 
contest, crumbled to pieces and driven back, leaving Edgarton's and part of 
Goodspeed's batteries in the hands of the enemy. 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 689 

The enemy, following up, attacked. Davis's division, and speedily dislcdged 
Post's brigade. Carlin's brigade was compelled to follow, as Woodruif' s bri- 
gade, from the weight of testimony, had previously left its position on his left. 
Johnson's brigades, in retiring, inclined too far to the west, and were too much 
scattered to make a combined resistance, though they fought bravely at one or 
two points before reaching Wilkerson's pike. The reserve brigade of Johnson's 
division, advancing from its bivouac near Wilkerson's pike towards the right, 
took a good position, and made a gallant but ineffectual stand, as the whole 
rebel left was moving up on the ground abandoned by our troops. 

Within an hour from the time of the opening of the battle, a staff-officer 
from General McCook arrived, announcing to me that the right wing was 
heavily pressed and needed assistance; but I was not advised of the rout of 
Willich's and Kirby's brigades, nor of the rapid withdrawal of Davis's division, 
necessitated thereby. Jloreover, having supposed his wing posted more com- 
pactly, and his right more refused, than it really was, the direction of the 
noise of battle did not indicate to me the true state of affairs. I consequently 
directed him to return and direct General McCook to dispose his troops to the 
best advantage, and to hold his ground obstinately. Soon after, a second 
officer from General McCook .arrived, and stated that the right Aving was 
being driven, — a fact that was but too manifest, by the rapid movement of the 
noise of battle towards the north. 

General Thomas was immediately despatched to order Rousseau — then in 
reserve — into tlie cedar-brakes to the right and rear of Sheridan. General 
Crittenden was ordered to suspend Van Cleve's movement across the river on 
the left, and to cover the crossing with one brigade and move the other two 
brigades westward, across tlie fields towards the railroad, for a reserve. Wood 
was also directed to suspend his preparations for crossing, and to hold Hascall 
in reserve. 

At this moment fugitives and stragglers from McCook's corps began to make 
their appearance through the cedar-brakes in such numbers that I became 
satisfied that McCook's corps Avas routed. I therefore directed General Crit- 
tenden to send Van Cleve in to the right of Rousseau, Wood to send Colonel 
Harker's brigade farther down the Murfreesborough pike, to go in and attack 
the enemy on the right of Van Cleve, the Pioneer Brigade meanwhile occupy- 
ing the knoll of ground west of the Murfrecsborougli pike, and about four 
hundred or five hundred yards in the rear of Palmer's centre, supporting 
Stokes's battery. Sheridan, after sustaining four successive attacks, gradually 
swung his right round southeasterly to a northwestern direction, repulsing 
the enemy four times, losing the gallant General Sill of his right and Colonel 
Roberts of his left brigade, when, having exhausted his ammunition, Negley's 
division being in the same predicament, and heavily pressed, after desperate 
fighting they fell back from the position held at the commencement, through 
the cedar woods, in which Rousseau's division, with a portion of Negley's and 
Sheridan's, met the advancing enemy, and checked his movements. 

The ammunition-train of the right wing, endangered by its sudden discom- 
fiture, was taken charge of by Captain Thruston, of the 1st Ohio Regiment— 
an ordnance officer, who by his energy and gallantry, aided by a charge of 
cavalry and such troops as*^he could pick up, carried it through the woods to 
the Murfreesborough pike, around to the rear of the left wing, thus enabbng 
the troops of Sheridan's division to replenish their empty cartridge-boxes. 
Durino- all this time. Palmer's front had likewise been in action, the enemy 
having made several attempts to advance upon it. At this stage it became 
necessary to readjust the line of battle to the new state of affairs. Rousseau 
and Van Cleve's advance having relieved Sheridan's division from the pressure, 
Negley's division and Cruffs brigade from Palmer's division withdrew from 
their original position in front of the cedars, and crossed tlieopen field to 
the east of the Murfreesborough pike, about four hundred yards in rear of our 
front line, where Negley was ordered to replenish his ammunition and form la 

close column in reserve. , , » -,-. , .. ht r ..„ 

The ri-ht an.l centre of our line now extended from Hazen to the Murfrees^ 
borough pike, in a northwesterly direction, Hascall supporting Hazen, Rousseaa 

U 



690 ' BATTLE OF STONE RIVER: 

filling tlij intei'Tal to the Pioneer Brigade, Negley in reserve, Tan Cleve west 
of the Pioneer Brigade, McCook's corps refused on his right and slightly to 
the rear on the Murfreesborough pike; the cavalry being still farther to the 
rear on the Murfreesborough pike and beyond Overall's Creek. 

The enemy's infantry and cavalry attack on our extreme right was repulsed 
by Van Cleve's division, with Marker's brigade and the cavalry. After several 
attempts of the enemy to advance on this new line, which were thoroughly 
repulsed, as were also the attempts on the left, the day closed, leaving us masters 
of the original ground on our left, and our new line advantageously posted, 
with open ground in front, swept at all points by our artillery. We had lost 
heavily in killed and wounded, and a considerable number in stragglers and 
prisoners; also twenty-eight pieces of artillery, the horses having been slain, and 
our troops being unable to withdraw them, by hand, over the rough ground; but 
the enemy had been roughly handled and badly damaged at all points, having had 
no success where we had open ground and our troops were properly posted, — 
none which did not depend on the original crushing of our right and the supe- 
rior masses which were, in consequence, brought to bear upon the narrow 
front of Sheridan's and Negley's divisions and a part of Palmer's, coupled with 
the scarcity of ammunition, caused by the circuitous road which the train had 
taken and the inconvenience of getting it from a remote distance through the 
cedars. Orders were given for the issue of all the spare ammunition; and we 
found that we had enougli for another battle, the only question being where 
that battle was to be fought. 

It was decided, in order to complete our present lines, that the left should 
be retired some two hundred and fifty yards, to more advantageous ground, the 
extreme left resting on Stone Piiver, above the lower ford, and extending to 
Stokes's battery. Starkweather's and Walker's brigades arriving near the 
close of the evening, the former bivouacked in close column, in reserve, in the 
rear of McCook's left, and the latter was posted on the left of Sheridan, near 
the Murfreesborough pike, and nert morning relieved Van Cleve, who returned 
to his position in the left wing. 

DISPOSITION FOR JANUARY 1, 1SG.5. 

After careful examination, and free consultation with corps commanders, fol- 
lowed by a personal examination of the ground in the rear as far as Overall's 
Creek, it was determined to await the enemy's attack in that position, to send 
for the provision-train, and order up fresh supplies of ammunition, on the 
arrival of which, should the enemy not attack, offensive operations should be 
resumed. 

No demonstration on the morning of the 1st of January: Crittenden was 
ordered to occupy the points opposite the ford on his left, with a brigade. 

About two o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy, who had shown signs of 
movement and massing on our right, appeared at the extremity of a field a mile 
and a half from the Murfreesborough pike; but the presence of Gibson's bri- 
gade, with a battery occupying the woods near Overall's Creek, and Negley's 
division, and a portion of Rousseau's, on the Murfreesborough pike, opposite 
the field, put an end to this demonstration ; and the day closed with another 
demonstration by the enemy, on Walker's brigade, which ended in the same 
manner. 

On Friday morning, the enemy opened four heavy batteries on our centre, 
and made a strong demonstration of an attack a little farther to the right ; but 
a well-directed fire of artillery soon silenced his batteries, while the guns of 
Walker and Sheridan put an end to his effort there. 

About three o'clock p.m., while the commanding general was examining the 
position of Crittenden's left, across the river, which was now held by Van 
■Cleve's division, supported by a brigade from Palmer's, a double line of skir- 
mishers were seen to emerge from the woods in a southeasterly direction, 
advancing across the fields, and were soon followed by heavy columns of 
infantry, battalion front, with three batteries of artillery. 

Our only battery on this side of the river had been withdrawn from an 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GEXERAL ROSECRANS. 691 

eligible point ; but the most, available sp.,t was pointed out, and it soon opened 
here upon the enemy. The :ine, however, advanced steadily to within one 
hundred yards of the front of Van Cleve's division, when a short and fierce 
contest ensued. Van Cleve's division, giving way, retired in considerable con- 
fusion across the river, followed closely by the enemy. 

General Crittenden immediately directed his chief of artillery to dispose the 
batteries on the hill, on the west side of the river, so as to open on them, while 
two brigades of IS'egley's division, from the reserve, and the Pioneer Erigade, 
were oraered up to meet the onset. 

The tiring was terrific, and the havoc terrible. The enemy retreated more 
rapidly than they had advanced; in forty minutes they lost two thousand 
men. 

General Davis, seeing some stragglers from Van Cleve's division, took one of 
his brigades and crossed at a ford below, to attack the enemy on his left flank, 
and, by General McCook's order, the rest of his division was permitted to 
follow; but, when he arrived, two brigades of Negley's division, and Hazen's 
brigade of Palmer's division, had pursued the flying enemy well across the 
field, capturing four pieces of artillery and a stand of colors. 

It was now after dark, and raining, or we should have pursued the enemy 
into Murfreesborough. As it was, Crittenden's corps passed over, and, with 
Davis, occupied the crests, which were intrenched in a few hours. 

Deeming it possible that the enemy might again attack our right and centre, 
thus weakened, I thought it advisable to make a demonstration on our right by 
a heavy division of camp-fires, and by laying out a line of battle with torches, 
which answered the purpose. 

SATURDAY, THIRD DAT OF JANUARY. 

It rained heavily from three o'clock in the morning: the ploughed ground over 
which our left would be obliged to advance was impassable for artillery. The 
ammunition-train did not arrive until ten o'clock: it was, therefore, deemed 
inadvisable to advance ; but batteries were put in position on the left, by which 
the ground could be swept, and even Murfreesborough reached, by the Parrott 
shells. 

A heavy and constant picket-firing had been kept up on our right and centre 
and extending to our left, which at last became so annoying that, in the after- 
noon, I directed the corps commanders to clear their fronts. 

Occupying the woods to the left of the Murfreesborough pike with sharp- 
shooters, the enemy had annoyed Rousseau all day, and General Thomas and 
himself requested permission to dislodge them and their supports, which covered 
a ford. This was granted, and a sharp fire from four batteries was opened for 
ten or fifteen minutes, when Rousseau sent two of his regiments, which, with 
Spear's Tennesseeans and the 85th Illinois Volunteers, that had come out 
with the wagon-train, charged upon the enemy, and after a sharp contest 
cleared the woods, and drove the enemy from his trenches, capturing from 
seventy to eighty prisoners. 

Sunday morning, the 4th of January, it was not deemed advisable to com- 
mence offensive movements, and news soon reached us that the enemy had fled 
from Murfreesborough. Burial-parties were sent out to bury the dead, and 
the cavalry was sent to reconnoitre. 

Early Monday morning. General Thomas advanced, driving the rear-guard of 
the rebel cavalry before him six or seven miles, towards Manchester. 

McCook's and Crittenden's corps, following, took position in front of the 
town, occupying Murfreesborough. 

We learned that the enemy's infantry had reached Shelbyville by twelve m. 
on Sunday; but, owing to the impracticability of bringing up supplies, and 
the loss of five hundred and fifty-seven artillery horses, further pursuit was 
deemed inadvisable. 

It may be of interest to give the following 



692 BATTLE OF STONE RIVER: 



GENERAL SUMMARY 

Of the operations and results of tlie series of skirmishes closing with the 
battle of Stone River and the occupation of Murfreesborough. We moved ou 
the enemy with the following forces: — 

Infantry 41,421 

Cavalry 3,296 

Artillery 2,223 

Total 46.940 

We fought the battle with the following forces: — 

Infantry 87,977 

Cavalry 3,200 

Artillery 2,223 

Total 43,400 

We lost in killed : — 

Officers 92 

Enlisted men 1,441 

Total 1,533 

We lost in wounded: — 

Officers 384 

Enlisted men 6,861 

Total 7,245 

Total killed and wounded 8,778 

Being 20.03 per cent, of the entire force in action. 

OUR LOSS IN PRISONERS 

Is not fully made out; but the Provost-Marshal General says, from present 
information, they will fall short of two thousand eight hundred. 

If there are any more bloody battles on record, considering the newness and 
inexperience of the troops, both officers and men, or if there have been more 
fighting-qualities displayed by any people, I should be pleased to know it. 

AS TO THE CONDITION OF THE FIGHT, 

We may say that we operated over an unknown country, against a position 
which was fifteen per cent, better than our own, every foot of ground and 
approaches being well known to the enemy, and that these disadvantages were 
fatally enhanced by the faulty position of our right wing. 

The force we fought is estimated as follows. We have prisoners from one 
nundred and thirty-two regiments of infantry (consolidations counted as one), 
averaging from those in General Bushrod Johnson's division four hundred and 
eleven each, — say, for certain, three hundred and fifty men each, will give 

No. men. 

132 regiments infantry, say 350 men each 46,200 

12 battalions sharpshooters, say 100 men each 1,200 

23 battalions of artillery, say 80 men each 1,840 

29 regiments cavalry, men each 400"! ,„ gon 

24 organizations of cavalry, men each 70 J ' 

220 62,520 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 693 

Their average loss, taken from the statistics of Cleborne, Breckinridge, and 
Withers's divisions, was about two thousand and eighty each. This,°for six 
divisions of infantry and one of cavalry, will amount to fourteen thousand five 
hundred and sixty men, — or to ours nearly as one hundred and sixty-five to 
one hundred. 

Of fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty rebels struck by our missiles, 
it is estimated that twenty thousand rounds of artillery hit seven hundred and 
twenty-eight men, two million rounds of musketry hit thirteen thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-two men, — averaging twenty-seven cannon-shots to hit one 
man, one hundred and forty-five musket-shots to hit one man. 

Our loss was as follows; — 

Per cent. 

Right wing 15,933. Musketry and artillery loss 20.72 

Centre 10,866. " " << 18.^ 

Left wing 18,288. " " «' 24.6 

On the whole, it is evident that we fought superior numbers on unknown 
ground, inflicting much more injury than we sufi"ered. AVe were always supe- 
rior on equal ground with equal numbers, and only failed of a most crushing 
victoi-y on Wednesday by the extension and direction of our right wing. 

This closes the narrative of the movements and seven days' fighting which 
terminated with the occupation of Murfreesborough. For a detailed history 
of the parts taken in the battles of the different commands, their obstinate 
bravery and patient endurance, in which the new regiments vied with those of 
more experience, I must refer to the accompanying sub»reports of the corps, 
division, cavalry, and artillery commanders. 

Besides the mention which has been already made of the service of our 
artillery by the brigade, division, and corps commanders, I deem it a duty to 
Bay tliat such a marked evidence of skill in handling the batteries, and in firing 
low with such effect, appears in this battle to deserve special commendation. 

Among the lesser commands which deserve special mention for distinguished 
service in the battle is the Pioneer Corps, a body of seventeen hundred (1700) 
men, composed of details from the companies of each infantry regiment, organ- 
ized and instructed by Captain James St. Clair Morton, Corps of Engineers, 
Chief Engineer of this army, which marched as an infantry brigade with the left 
wing, made bridges at Stewart's Creek, prepared and guarded the fort at Stone 
River on the nights of the 29th and 30th, supported Stokes's battery, and fought 
with valor and determination on the 31st, holding its position until relieved; 
on the morning of the 2d advancing with the greatest promptitude and gallantry 
to support Van Cleve's division against the at'tack on our left; on the evening 
of the same day constructing a bridge and batteries between that time and 
Saturday evening; and the efficiency and esprit de corps suddenly developed in 
this command, its gallant behavior in action, the eminent service it is con- 
tinually rendering the army, entitle both officers and men to special public 
notice and thanks, while they reflect the highest credit on the distinguished 
ability and capacity of Captain Morton, who will do honor to his promotion to 
a brigadier-general", which the President has promised him. 

The ability, order, and method exhibited in the management of the wounded 
elicited the warmest commendation from all our general ofiScers, — in which I 
most cordially join. 

Notwithstanding the numbers to be cared for, through the energy of Dr. 
Swift, Medical Director, iibly assisted by Dr. V/eeds and the senior surgeons 
of the various commands, there was less suffering from delay than I have ever 
before witnessed. 

The 10th Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, at Stewart's Creek, Lieutenant-Colonel 
J. AV. Burke commanding, deserve especial praise for the abDity and spirit 
with which they held their post, defended our ti-ains, securec' their guai-ds, 
chased away AVheeler's rebel cavalry, saving a large wagon-train, and arrested 
and retained for service some two thousand stragglers from the battle field. 

The 1st Regiment of Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, at Lavergne, under 
command of Colonel Inues, fighting behind a slight protection of wagons and 



694 BATTLE OF STONE RIVER: 

brush, gallantly repulsed a charge from more than ten times their numbers of 
Wheeler's cavalry. 

For distinguished acts of individual zeal, heroism, gallantry, and good con- 
duct, I refer to the accompanying ^'List of Special Mentions and Recommendationg 
for Promotion" wherein are named some of the many noble men who have 
distinguished themselves and done honor to their country and the starry 
symbol of its unity. But those named there are by no means all whose 
names will be inscribed on the rolls of honor we are preparing and hope it 
have held in grateful remembrance by our countrymen. To say that such men 
as Major-General G. H. Thomas, true and prudent, distinguished in council 
and on many battle-fields for his courage, or Major-General McCook, a tried, 
faithful, and loyal soldier, who bravely breasted battle at Shiloh and at Perry- 
ville, and as bravely on the bloody field of Stone River, and Major-General 
Thomas L. Crittenden, whose heart is that of a true soldier and patriot, and 
whose gallantry, often attested by his companions-in-arms in other fields, 
witnessed many times by this army long before I had tlie honor to command 
it, never more conspicuously than in this combat, maintained their high cha- 
racter throughout this action, would but feebly express my feeling of obligation 
to them fnr counsel and support from the time of my arrival to the present hour. 
I doubly thank them, as well as the gallant, ever-ready Major-General Rousseau, 
for their support in this battle. 

Brigadier-General Stanley, already distinguished for four successful battles, — 
Island No. 10, ^lay 27, before Corinth, luka, and the battle of Corinth, — at this 
time in command of our ten regiments of cavalry, fought the enemy's forty 
regiments of cavalry, and held tliem at bay, and beat them wherever he could 
meet them. He ought to be made a major-general for his services, and also 
for the good of the service. 

As for such brigadiers as Negley, Jefferson C. Davis, Johnson, Palmer, 
Hascall, Van Cleve, Wood, Mitchell, Cruft, and Sheridan, they ought to be 
made major-generals in our service. In such brigade commanders as Colonels 
Cirlin, Miller, Hazen, Samuel Beatty of the 19th Ohio, Gibson, Grose, Wagner, 
John Beatty of the 3d Ohio, Hai-ker, Starkweather, Stanley, and others 
whose names are mentioned in the accompanying report, the Government 
may well confide. They are the men from whom our troops should be at 
once supplied with brigadier-generals ; and justice to the brave men and ofEcers 
of the regiments equally demands their promotion, to give them and their 
regiments their proper leaders. Many captains and subalterns also showed 
great gallantry and capacity for superior commands. But, above all, the steady 
rank and file showed invincible fighting courage and stamina worthy of a great 
and free nation, requiring only good officers, discipline, and instruction to 
make them equal, if not superior, to any troops in ancient or modern times. 
To them I offer my most heartfelt thanks and good wishes. 

Words of my own cannot add to the renown of our brave and patriotic 
officers and soldiers who fell on the field of honor, nor increase respect for 
their memory in the hearts of our countrymen. The names of such men as 
Lieutenant-Colonel J. P. Gareschi?, the pure and noble Christian gentleman and 
chivalric officer, who gave his life an early offering on the altar of his country's 
freedom, — tlie gentle, true, and accomplished Getieral Sill, — the brave, inge- 
nious, and able Colonels Roberts, Millikin, Shaeffer, McKee, Reed, Forman, Fred. 
Jones. Hawkins, Kell, and the gallant and faithful Major Carpenter, of the 
19:h Regulars, and many other field officers, — will live in our country's his- 
tory, as well as those of many others of inferior rank, whose soldierly deeds 
on this memorable battle-field Avon for them the admiration of their companions, 
and will dwell in our memories in long future years after God in his mercy 
shall have given us peace and restored us to the bosom of our homes and 
families. Simple justice to the officers of my staff requires their special men- 
tion: — the noble and lamented Lieutenant-Colonel Garesch<5, Chief of Staff; 
Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor, Chief Quartermaster ; Lieutenant-Colonel Simmons, 
Chief Commissary ; INIajor C. Goddard, senior aide-de-camp; Major Ralston 
Skinner, Judge-Advocate General ; Lieutenant Frank S. Bond, aide-de-camp 
of General Tyler; Captain Charles R. Thompson, my aide-de-camp; Lieute- 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 695 

iiant T3jron Kirby, 6th United States Infantry, aide-de-camp, who was wounded 
on December 31 ; R. S. Thorns, Esq., a member of the Cincinnati bar, who 
acted as volunteer aide-de-camp, and behaved with distinguished gallantry; 
Captain William D. Bickham, volunteer aide-de-camp, rendered efficient ser- 
vices on the field; Colonel Barnett, Chief of Artillery and Ordnance; Captain 
J. II. Oilman, 19th United States Infantry, Inspector of Artillery ; Captain 
James Curtis, 15th United States Infantry, Assistant Inspector-General ; 
Captain Wiles, 22d Indiana, Provost- Marshal General; Captain Mitchler, 
Topographical Engineer; Captain Jesse Merrill, Signal Corps, whose corps 
behaved well ; Captain Elmer Otis, 4th Regular Cavalry, who commanded the 
Courier Line, connecting the various head-quarters most successfully, and 
who made a most successful, opportune, and brilliant charge on Wheeler's 
cavalry, routing the brigade, and recapturing three hundred of our prisoners. 
Lieutenant Edson, United States Ordnance Officer, who during the battle of 
Wednesday distributed ammunition under the fire of the enemy's batteries 
and behaved bravely. Captain Hubbard and Lieutenant Newberry, who 
joined my stafi" on the field, acting as aides, rendered valuable service in 
carrying orders on the field. Lieutenant Royse, 4th United States Cavalry, 
commanded the escort of the head-quarters train, and distinguished himself 
with gallantry and efficiency. All performed their appropriate duties to my 
entire satisfaction, accompanying me everywhere, and carrying orders through 
the thickest of the fight, watching while others slept, never weary wlien duty 
called, and deserve my public thanks and the respect and gratitude of the army. 
With all the facts of the battle fully before me, the relative numbers and 
positions of our troops and those of the rebels, the gallantry and obstinacy of 
the contest, and the final result, I say, from conviction, and as public acknow- 
ledgment due to Almighty God, in closing this report, "iVow tiobis, Domine, 
non nobis, sed 7iomine tui da gloriam." 

(Signed), WM. S. ROSECRANS, 

Major- General Commanding. 

Bkigadier-Gexeral Thomas. 

Adjutajit- General United States Army. 



6^(3 BATTLE OF STONE RIVER : 



Bfjidixl lleprt df (SiJUfiral graxton ^raigg. 



Head-Quarters Army of Tennessee, Tullahoma, February 23, 1863. 

Sir: — On the 26th of December last the enemy advanced in force from Nash- 
ville to attack us at Murfreesborough. It had been well ascertained that his 
effective force lyas over sixty thousand effective men. Before night on that 
day, the object of tlie movement was developed, by our dispositions in front, 
and orders were given for the necessary concentration of our forces there dis- 
tributed, as follows : — 

Polk's corps and three brigades of Breckinridge's division, Hardee's corps, 
;it Murfreesborough ; the balance of Hardee's corps, near Eagleville, about 
twenty miles west of Murfreesborough; McCown's division (which, with 
Stevenson's division removed, constituted Smith's corps) at Ready ville,, twelve 
miles east of Murfreesborough ; the three cavalry brigades of Wiieeler, Whar- 
ton, and Pegram, occupying the entire front of our infantry, and covering all 
approaches to within ten miles of Nashville ; Buford's small cavalry brigade, 
of about six hundred, at JMcMinnville. The brigades of Forrest and Morgan, 
about live thousand effective cavalry, were absent, on special service, in West 
Tennessee and Northern Kentucky, as will be more fully noted hereafter. 
Jackson's small infantry brigade was in the rear, guarding the railroad from 
Bridgeport, Alabama, to the mountains. Un Sunday, the 28th, our main force 
of infantry and artillery was concentrated in front of Murfreesborough ; while 
the cavalry, supported by three brigades of infantry and three batteries of 
artillery, impeded the advance of the enemy by constant skirmishing and sudden 
and unexpected attacks. To the skilful manner in which the cavalry, thus 
ably supported, was handled, and to the exceeding gall.mtry of its oihcers and 
men, must be attributed the four days' time consumed by the enemy in reach- 
ing the battle-field, a distance of only twenty miles from his encampment, over 
fine macadamized roads. 

Fully aware of the greatly superior numbers of tlie enemy, as indicated in 
my early reports from this quarter, it was our policy to await attack. The 
position was selected and line developed with this intention. Owing to the 
convergence upon our depot of so many fine roads by which the enemy could 
apj>roach, we were confined in our silection to a line near enough to the point 
of juncture to enable us to successfully cover them all until the real point of 
attack should be developed. 

On Monday, the 29th, it was reported that heavy columns moved on both the 
direct road from Lavergne and on tlie one leading into the Lebanon road by 
way of Jefferson. But on Tuesday, the 3llth, it was ascertained that the 
Jefferson pike was abandoned by a countermarch, and the whole forces of the 
enemy were concentrated on and near the direct road on the west of Stone 
River. 

Our arrangements were all coinpleted before the enemy crossed Stewart's 
Creek, nine miles out, and the infantry brigades were at once called in ; and 
the cavalry was ordered to fall back more rapidly, having most gallantly dis- 
charged its duty and fully accomplished the objects desired. Late on Monday 
*t became apparent the enemy was extending to iiis right to flank us on the 
'eft. McCown's division, in reserve, was promptly thrown to that flank, and 
added to the command of Lieutenant-General Polk. The enemy not meeting 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL BRAGG. 697 

our expectations of making an attack on Tuesday, — which was consumed ia 
artillery firing and heavj^ skirmishing, with the exception of a dash late in the 
evening on the left of Withers's division, which was repulsed and severely 
punished, — it was determined to a'^sail him on Wednesday morning, the 31st. 

For this purpose Cleborne's division, Hardee's corps, was moved from the 
second line on the right to the corresponding position on the left, and Lieute- 
nant-General Hardee was ordered to that point, and assigned to the command of 
that and McCown's division. This disposition, the result of necessity, left me 
no reserve; but Breckinridge's commtind on the right, not now threatened, 
■was regarded as a source of supply for any reinforcements absolutely necessary 
to other parts of the field. Stone River, at its low stage, was fordable at any 
point for infantry, and, at short intervals, perfectly practicable for artillery. 

These dispositions completed. General Hardee was ordered to assail the 
enemy at daylight on Wednesday, the Slst, the attack to be taken up by Polk's 
command in succession, to the right flank ; the move to be made by a constant 
wheel to tlie right, — on Polk's right, as a point; the object being to force the 
enemy back on Stone River, and, if practicable, by the aid of cavalry, cut 
him off from his base of operations and supplies by the Nasliville pike. 

The lines were now bivouacked at a distance, in places, of not more than five 
hundred yards, the camp-fires of the two being within distinct view. General 
Wharton's cavalry brigade had been kept on our left, to watch and check the 
movements of the enemy- in that direction, and to prevent his gaining the rail- 
road in our rear, the preservation of which was of vital importance. In this 
he was aided by Brigadier-General A. Buford, who had a small command of 
six hundred new cavalry. The duty was most ably, gallantly, and successfully 
performed. 

On Monday night Brigadier-General Wheeler proceeded with his cavalry 
brigade and one regiment from Pegram's. as ordered, to gain the enemy's rear. 
By Tuesday morning, moving on the Jeiferson pike, around the enemy's left 
flank, he had gained tlie rear of their whole army, and soon attacked their 
trains, their guards, and the numerous stragglers. 

He succeeded in capturing several hundred prisoners and destroying hun- 
dreds of wagons loaded with supplies and baggage. After clearing the road, 
he made his way entirely around, and joined the cavalry on our left. 

The failure of General McCown to execute, during the night, an order for a 
slight change in the line of his division, and which had to be done the next 
morning, caused some delay in the general and vigorous assault by Lieutenant- 
General Hardee. But about seven o'clock the rattle of musketry and the roar 
of artillery announced the beginning of the conflict. The enemy was taken 
completely by surprise: general and stafiF ofiicers were not mounted, artillery 
horses not hitched, and infantry not formed. A hot and inviting breakfast of 
coffee and other luxuries, to wliich our gallant and hardy men had long been 
strangers, was found upon the fire, unserved, and was left while we pushed on 
to a more inviting feast, — that of captured artillery, flying battalions, and hosts 
of craven prisoners, begging for their lives they had forfeited by their acts of 
brutality and atrocity. While thus routing and pushing the enemy on his 
front, Lieutenant-General Hardee announced to me, by a messenger, that the 
movement was not being as promptly executed by Major-General Cheatham's 
command on his right— the left of General Polk's corps— as he expected, and 
that his line was consequently exposed to an enfilading fire from the enemy's 
artillery in that front. The necessai-y instructions for prompt movement at 
that point were immediately despatched, and in a short time our whole line, 
except Breckinridge's command, was warmly engaged. From this time we 
continued to drive the enemy more or less rapidly, until his line was thrown 
entirely back at right angles to his first position and occupied the cut of the 
railroad, along which he had massed his reserves and posted very strong bat- 
teries. 'The enemy's loss was very heavy in killed and wounded, — far exceed- 
ing our own, as appeared from a critical examination of the field, now almost 
entirely in our possession. Of artillery alone we had secured more than 
twenty-five pieces. , . .,• ^i i. 

While the infantry and artillery wero engaged m this successtul work, 



698 BATTLE OF STONE RIVER : 

Brigadier-General Wharton, ■with his cavalry command, was most activelj^ and 
gallantly engaged on the enemy's right and rear, where he inflicted a heavy 
loss in killed and wounded, captured a full battery of artillery attempting to 
escape, and secured and sent iu near two thousand prisoners. 

These important successes and results had not been achieved without heavy 
sacrifices on our part, as the resistance of the enemy, after the first surprise, 
was most gallant and obstinate. 

Finding Lieutenant-General Hardee so formidably opposed by the movement 
of the enemy on his front, reinforcements for him were ordered from Major- 
General Breckinridge ; but the orders were countermanded, as will hereafter 
appear, and Polk's corps was pressed forward with vigor, hoping to draw the 
enemy back or rout him on the right, as he had already been on the left. Wo 
succeeded in driving him from evci-y position except the strong one held by 
his extreme left flank, resting on Stone River, and covered by a concentration 
of artillery of superior range and calibre, which seemed to bid us defiance. 
The difficulties of our general advance had been greatly enhanced by the 
topography of the country. All parts of our line had to pass in their progress 
over ground of the roughest character, covered with huge stones and studded 
with the densest growth of cedar, the branches reaching the ground and 
forming an almost impassable "brake." Our artillery could rarely be used ; 
while the enemy, holding defensive lines, had selected formidable positions for 
his batteries, and this dense cover for his infantry, from both of which he had 
to be dislodged by our infantry alone. The determined and unvarying gal- 
lantry of our troops, and the uninterrupted success which attended their 
repeated charges against these strongholds, defended by double their numbers, 
fully justified the unbounded confidence I had ever reposed in them and have 
so often expressed. 

To meet our successful advances, and to retrieve his hopes in the front of his 
left, the enemy early transferred a portion of his reserve from his left to that 
flank, and by two o'clock had succeeded in concentrating such a force in Lieu- 
tenant-General Hardee's front as to check his further progress. Our two lines 
bad by this time become almost blended, so weakened were they by losses, 
exhaustion, and extension to cover the enemy's whole front. 

As early as ten o'clock a.m., Major-General Breckinridge was called on for 
one brigade, and soon after for a second, to reinforce or act as a reserve to 
Lieutenant-General Hardee. His reply to the first call represented the enemy 
crossing Stone Kiver in heavy force in his immediate front; and on receiving 
the second order he informed me that they had already crossed in heavy force, 
and were advancing to attack his lines. He was immediately ordered not to 
await attack, but to advance and meet them. About this same time a report 
reached me that a heavy force of the enemy's infantry was advancing on the 
Lebanon road, about five miles in Breckinridge's front. Brigadier-General 
Pegram, who had been sent to that road to cover the flank of the infantry with 
his cavalry brigade, — save two regiments detached with Wheeler and Wharton, 
— was ordered forward immediately to develop any such movement. The orders 
for the two brigades from Breckinridge were countermanded, while dispositions 
were made, at his request, to reinforce him. Before they could be carried out, 
the movement ordered disclosed the fact that no force had crossed Stone Kiver, 
that the only enenij'- in our immediate front there was a small body of sharp- 
shooters, and that there was no advance on the Lebanon road. These unfor- 
tunate misapprehensions on that part of the field, which, with proper precaution, 
could not have existed, withheld from active operations three fine brigades 
until the enemy had succeeded in checking our progress, had re-established his 
lines, and had collected many of his broken battalions. 

Having now settled the question that no movement was being made against 
our right, and none even to be apprehended, Breckinridge was ordered to leave 
two brigades to support the batteries at "A," on his side of Stone River, and 
with the balance of the force to cross to the left and report to Lieutenant- 
General Polk. By the time this could be accomplished, it was too late to send 
this force to Lieutenant-General Hardee's support, who was unable to make 
further progress, and he was directed to maintain his position. Polk was 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL BRAGG. G99 

directed with these reinforcements, to tbroiv all the force he could collect upon 
the enemy's extreme left, and thereby either carry that strong point, which 
had so far resisted us successfully, or, failing in that, at least to draw off from 
Hardee's front the formidable opposition there concentrated. 

The three brigades of Jackson, Preston, and Adams were successively re- 
ported for this work. How gallantly they moved to their work, and liow much 
they suffered in the determined eifort to accomplish it, will best appear from 
the reports of subordinate commanders and the statement of losses therewith. 
Upon this flank — their strongest defensive position resting on the river-bank— 
the enemy had concentrated not less than twenty pieces of artillery, masked 
almost entirely from view, but covering an open space in front of several 
hundred yards, supported, right, left, and rear, by heavy masses of infantry. 

The position proved impenetrable, and, after two unsuccessful efforts, the 
attempt to carry it by infantry was abandoned. Our heaviest batteries of 
artillery and rifled guns of long range were now concentrated in front, and 
their fires opened on tliis position. After a cannonade of some time, the 
enemy's fire .slackened, and finally closed near nightfall. Lieutenant-General 
Hardee had slightly retired his line from the farthest point he had attained, 
for better position and cover, without molestation from the enemy. 

Lieutenant-General Polk's infantry, including the three reinforced brigades, 
uniting their front with Hardee's right, and extending to our extreme right 
flank, formed a continuous line, very nearly perpendicular to the original line 
of battle, thus leaving nearly the whole field, with all its trophies, the enemy's 
dead and many of his wounded, his hospitals and stores, in our possession. 
The body of Brigailier-General Sill, one of their division commanders, was 
found where he had fallen, and was sent to town and decently interred, although 
he had forfeited all claim to such consideration by the acts of cruelty, bar- 
barity, and atrocity but a few days before committed, under his authority, on 
the women and children and old men living near the road on which he had 
made a reconnoissance. 

During the afternoon, Brigadier-General Pegram, discovering a hospital and 
large numbers of stragglers in the rear of the enemy's lines and across Stone 
River, charged them with his cavalry, and captured about one hundred and 
seventy prisoners. 

Both armies, exhausted by a conflict of full ten hours' duration, rarely sur- 
passed for its continued intensity and heavy losses sustained, sank to rest with 
the sun, and perfect quiet prevailed for the night. 

At dawn on Thursday morning, the 1st of .January, orders were sent to the 
several commanders to press forward their skirmishers, feel the enemy, and 
report anv change in his position. Major-General Breckinridge had been 
transferred to the right of Stone lliver to resume the command of that position, 
now held by two of his brigades. It was soon reported that no change had 
occurred, except the withdrawal of the enemy from the advanced position occu- 
pied by his left flank. Finding, upon further examination, that this was the 
case, the i-ight flank of Lieutenant-General Polk's corps was thrown forward to 
occupy the ground for which we had so obstinately contended the evening 
before. This shortened our lines considerably, and gave us possession of the 
centre battle-field, from which we gleaned the spoils and trophies throughout 
the day, and transferred them rapidly to the rear. 

A careful reconnoissance of the enemy's position was ordered, and the most 
of the cavalry was put in motion for the roads in his rear, to cut off his trains 
and develop any movement. It was soon ascertained that he was still in very 
heavy force all along our front, occupying a position strong by nature and 
improved by such work as could be done by night by his reserves. 

In a short time, reports from the cavalry informed me that heavy trams 
were moving towards Nashville, some of the wagons loaded, and all the ambu- 
Imces filled with wounded. These were attacked at different places, many 
wagons destroyed, and hundreds of prisoners paroled. No doubt this induced 
the enemy to send large escorts of cavalry and artillery and infantry with 
later trains ; and thus the impression was made on our ablest commanders that 
a retrograde movement was going on. 



700 BATTLE OF STONE RIVER : 

Our forces, greatly wearied and much reduced by heavy losses, were held 
ready to avail themselves of any chanp;e in the enemy's position; but it was 
deemed unadvisabie to assail him as there established. The whole day, after 
these dispositions, was passed without an important movement on either side, 
and was consumed by us in gleaning the battle-field, burying the dead, and 
replenishing ammunition. 

At daylight on Friday, the 2d, orders to feel the enemy and ascertain his 
positi(jn were repeated, with the same result. The cavalry brigades of Wheeler 
and Wharton had returned during the night, greatly exliausted from long-con- 
tinued service, with but little rest or food for either man or horse. Both the 
commanders reported the indications from the enemy's movi'ments the same. 
Allowing them only a few hours to feed and rest, and sending the two detached 
regiments back to Pegram's brigade, Wharton was ordered to the right bank 
across Stone River, immediateh' in Breckinridge's front. Reconnoissances by 
several siaif-officers soon developed the fact that a division had quietly crossed 
unopposed and established themselves on and under cover of an eminence from 
which Lieutenant-General Polk's line was commanded and enfiladed. The dis- 
lodgment of this force or the withdrawal of Polk's line was an evident neces- 
sity. The latter involved consequences not to be entertained. Orders were 
consequently given for the concentration of the whole of General Breckin- 
ridge's division in front of the position to be taken, the addition to his com- 
mand of the ten Napoleon guns, twelve-pounders, under Captain F. H. Robert- 
son, an able and accomplished artillery officer, and for the cavalry forces of 
Wharton and Pegram, about two thousand men, to join in his attack on the 
right. Major-General Breckinridge was sent for, and advised of the movement 
and its objects, the securing and holding the position which protected Polk's 
flank and gave us command of the enemy's, by which to enfilade him. He was 
informed of the disposition of the forces placed at his disposal, and instructed 
with them to drive the enemy back, crown the hill, intrench his artillery, and 
hold the position. 

To distract their attention from our real object, a heavy fire was ordered to 
be opened from Polk's front at the exact hour at which the movement was to 
begin. At other points, throughout both lines, all was quiet. General Breck- 
inridge, at three p.m., reported he would advance at four. Polk's batteries 
promptly opened fire, and were soon answered by the enemy. A heavy cannon- 
ade of some fifteen minutes was succeeded by tlie musketry, which soon became 
general. The contest was short and severe; the enemy was driven back, and 
the eminence gained; but the movement, as a whole, was a failure, and the 
position was again j'ielded. Our forces were moved, unfortunatelj^, to the left 
so far as to throw a portion of them into and over Stone River, where they 
encountered heavy masses of the enemy, while those against whom they were 
intended to operate on our side of the river had a destructive enfilade on our 
whole line. Our reserved line was so close to the front as to receive the 
enemy's fire, and, returning it, took their friends in the rear. The cavalry 
force was left entirely out of the action. 

Learning from my own stafF-ofHcers, sent to the scene, of the disorderly 
retreat being made by General Breckinridge's division, Brigadier-General 
Pat ton Anderson's fine brigade of Mississippians, the nearest body of troops, 
was promptly ordered to the relief. On reaching the field and moving forward, 
Anderson found himself in front of Breckinridge's infantry, and soon encoun- 
tered the enemy's light troops close upon our artillery, which had been left 
without su])port. This noble brigade, under its cool and gallant chief, drove 
tlie enemy back, and saved all the guns not captured before its arrival. Cap- 
lain F. n. R'^bertson, after the disabling wound received by Major Graves, 
General Breckinridge's gallant and efficient Chief of Artillery, took the entire 
charge of the artillerj' of the division, in addition to his own. To his gallantry, 
energy, and fearlessness is due the smallness of our loss sustained before the 
arriNul of support, — only three guns. Ilis report will show the important 
part he played in this attack and repulse. Before the end of the whole move- 
ment, it was quite dark. Anderson's command held a position next the enemy, 
corresponding nearly with our original line, while Breckinridge's brigade 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL BRAGG. 701 

eommanders collected. their men, as far as practicable in the darkness, and 
took irregular positions on Anderson's left and rear. At daylight in the 
morning they were moved forward to the front, and the whole line was re-es- 
tablished without opposition. During the night, Major-General Cleborne"3 
division was re-transferred to its original position on the right, and Lieutenant- 
General Hardee directed to resume his command there and restore our line. 

On Saturday morning, the 3d, our forces had been in line of battle live days 
and nights, with but little rest. Having no reserves, their baggage and tents 
iiad been loaded, and the wagons were four miles off; their provisions, if 
cooked at all, were most improperly prepared with scanty means ; the weather 
had been severe from cold and almost constant rain, and we had no change of 
clothing, and in many places could not have fire. The necessary consequence 
was the great exhaustion of both officers and men, many having to be sent to 
the hospitals in the rear, and more still were beginning to straggle from their 
commands, — an evil from whicli we had so far suffered but little. During the 
whole of this day the rain continued to fall witli little intermission, and the 
rapid rise in Stone River indicated that it soon would be unfordable. Late on 
Tuesday night I had received the captured papers of Major-General McCook, 
commanding one corps d'armee of the enemy, showing their effective strength to 
have been very nearly, if not quite, seventy thousand men. Before noon, 
reports from Brigadier General Wheeler satisfied me that the enemy, instead 
of retiring, was receiving reinforcements. 

Common prudence and tlie safety of my array, upon which even the safety 
of our cause depended, left no doubt in my mind as to the necessity of my 
withdrawal from so unequal a contest. My orders were accordingly given 
about noon for the movement of the trains and for the necessary preparations 
of troops. 

Under the efficient management of the dilFerent staff departments, every 
thing had been secured and transferred to the rear, including prisoners, cap- 
tured artillery, small arms, subsistence, means of transportation, and nearly 
all of our wounded able to bear moving. No movements were made by the 
troops on either side during this most inclement day, save just at night, when 
a sharp skirmish occurred between Polk's riglit and the enemy's left flank, 
resulting in nothing decisive. The only question with me was, whether the 
movements should be made at once or delayed twenty-four hours to save a few 
of our wounded. As it was probable we should lose by exhaustion as many as 
we should remove of the wounded, my inclination to remain was yielded. The 
whole force, except the cavalry, was put in motion at eleven o'clock p.m., and 
the army retired in perfect order to its present position, behind Duck River, 
without receiving or giving a shot. Our cavalry held the position before Mur- 
freesborough until Monday morning, the 5th, when it quietly retired, as ordered, 
to cover our front. 

We left about one thousand two hundred badly wounded, one-half of whom, 
we learn, have since died from the severity of their injuries ; about three hun- 
dred sick, too feeble to bear transportation ; and about two hundred well men 
and medical officers as their attendants. [The real number was two thousand 
eight hundred.— Author of the "Annals."] In addition to this, the enemy 
had captured about eight hundred prisoners from us. As the one thousand 
two hundred wounded are counted once under that head among our losses, 
they should be excluded from the general total. 

As an offset to this loss, we had secured, as will appear from the report of 
my inspector-general, considerably over six thousand prisoners; had captured 
over thirty pieces of artillery, six thousand stands of small arms, ambu- 
lances, mules, and harness, with a large amount of valuable property, all of 
which was secured and appropriated to proper uses. Besides all this secured, 
we had burned not less than eight hundred wagons, mostly laden with various 
articles, such as arms, ammunition, provisions, baggage, clothing, medicines, and 
hospital stores. We had lost three pieces of artillery only, all in Breckinridge's 
repulse. A number of stands of colors— nine of which are forwarded with 
this report— were also captured on the field. Others known to have been taken 
were not sent in. 



702 BATTLE OP STONK RIVER: 

The number of ngliting-men we had on the field on thte morning of the 31st 
of December was less than thirty-five thousand, of which about thirty thousand 
were infantry and artillery. 

Among the gallant dead the nation is called to mourn, none could have fallen 
more honored or regretted tlian Brigadier-Generals James E. Rains and R. W. 
Hanson. They yielded their lives in the heroic discharge of duty, and leave 
their honored names as a rich legacy to their descendants. Brigadier-Generals 
James R. Chalmers and D. AV. Adams received disabling wounds on Wednesday, 
I am happy to say not serious, but which deprived us of their valuable services. 
Having been under my immediate command since the beginning of the war, I 
can bear evidence to their devotion and to the conspicuous gallantry which has 
marked their services on every field. 

For the sacred names of other heroes and patriots of lower grades, who gave 
their lives, illustrating the character of the Confederate soldier on this bloody 
field, 1 must refer to the reports of subordinate commanders, and to the list 
which will be submitted. Our loss, it will be seen, exceeded ten thousand, nine 
thousand of whom icere killed and icounded. 

The enemy's loss we have no means of knowing with certainty. One corps, 
commanded by Major-General Thomas J. Crittenden, which was least exposed 
in the engagement, reports over five thousand killed and wounded. As they 
had two other corps and a separate division, third of a corps, and their 
cavalry, it is safely estimated at three thousand killed and sixteen thousand 
wounded; adding six thousand two hundred and seventy-three prisoners, and 
we have a total of twenty-five thousand two hundred and seventy-three. 

Lieutenant-Generals L. Polk and W. J. Hardee, commanding corps, Major- 
Generals J. M. Withers and P. R. Cleborne, commanding divisions, are espe- 
cially commended to the Government for the valor, skill, and ability displayed 
by them throughout the engagement. 

Brigadier-General J. Patton Anderson, for the coolness, judgment, and 
courage with which he interposed his brigade between our retreating forces 
and the enemy, largely superior to him, on Friday evening, and saved our 
artillery, is justly entitled to special mention. 

Brigadier-Generals Joseph Wheeler and John H. Wharton, commanding 
cavalry brigades, were pre-eminently distinguished throughout the action, as 
they had been for a month previous in many successive actions with the enemy. 
Under their skilful and gallant lead, the reputation of our cavalry has been 
greatly enhanced. 

For the just commendation of many other oflScersj, many of whom were pre- 
eminently distinguished, I must refer to the reports of their more immediate 
commanders. 

To the private soldier a fair meed of praise is due; and, though it is seldom 
given, and so rarely expected that it may be considered out of place, I can- 
not, in justice to myself, withhold the opinion ever entertained, and so often 
expressed, during our struggle for independence. In the absence of the 
instruction and discipline of old armies, and of the confidence which long 
association produces between veterans, we have, in a great measure, to trust to 
the individuality and self-reliance of the private soldier. Without the incentive 
or the motive which controls the officer, who hopes to live in history, without 
the hope of reward, and actuated only by a sense of duty and patriotism, he 
has, in this great contest, justly judged that the cause was his own, and gone 
into it with a determination to conquer or die, to be free or not to be at all. No 
encomium is too high, no honor too great, for such a soldiery. However much 
of credit and glory may be given, and probably justly given, to the leaders in 
our struggle, history will yet award the main honor where it is due, — to the 
private soldier, who, without hope of reward, and with no other incentive than 
a consciousness of rectitude, has encountered all the hardships and suffered all 
the privations. Well has it been said, "The first monument our Confederacy 
rears, when our independence shall have been won, should be a lofty shaft, 
pure and spotless, bearing this inscription: — ' To the unknown and unrecorded 
dead.'" 

The members of my staff, arduously engaged in their several duties before, 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL BRAGG. 703 

during, and since the prolonged engagement, are deserving a mention in tliis 
report. 

Lieutenant-Colonels George G. Gardner and G. W. Brent and Captain P. 
Thompson, Adjutant Inspector-General's Department; 1st Lieutenants Towson 
Ellis and F. S. Parker, regular aide-de-camps ; Lieutenant-Colonel Beard, 
Inspector-General; Lieutenant-Colonels A. J. Hays and P. A. May; Major 
James Stainbridge, Louisiana Infantry, and Major Wm. Clarelate, 7th Alabama 
Volunteers, Adjutant Assistant Inspector-Generals; Lieutenant-Colonel L. W. 
O'Bannow, Chief Quartermaster ; Major J. J. Walker, Chief Commissary ; Majors 
F. Molloy and G. M. Hillyer, Assistants ; Lieutenant-Colonel H. Aladowski, 
Chief of Ordnance ; Captains W. H. Warren and 0. T. Gibbs and Lieutenant W. 
F. Johnson, Assistants; Captain S. AV. Steele, Assistant Chief Engineer, and 
Lieutenants H. C. Forie, and H. H. Buchanan, and J. Pi. P. McFall; Lieutenant- 
Colontd J. H. Hollinquist, Acting Chief of Artillery; First Lieutenant R. H. 
Thompson, Assistant Surgeon; A. J. Foard, Medical Director; Surgeon E. A. 
Llewellen, Assistant Medical Director ; Acting Surgeon T. G. Richardson, at- 
tendant on myself, statf, and escort; Colonel David Urquhart, of Louisiana; 
J. Stoddard Johnston, of Kentucky; and St. Leger Qrenfel, of England, the 
two former volunteer aides, long on my staif, serving me most effectively; 
Major E. W. Baylor, Assistant Quartermaster; Major B. 0. Kennedy, Assist- 
ant Commissary of Subsistence, and Lieutenant William M. Bridges, aide-de- 
camp to the late Brigadier-General Duncan, reported just before tlie engage- 
ment, and joined my staif, on which they served through the battle; Colonel 
M. L. Clark, of the Artillery P. A., did me the favor to join and serve on my statf 
during the engagement. 

His Excellency Isham G. Harris, Governor of Tennessee, and the Hon. 
Andrew Ewing, member of the Military Court, volunteered their services and 
rendered me efficient aid, especially with the Tennessee troops, largely in the 
ascendant in the arnvj. It is but due to a zealous and efficient laborer in our 
cause that I here bear testimony to the cordial support given me at all 
times, since meeting him a year ago in W^est Tennessee, by his Excellency 
Governor Harris. From the field of Shiloh, where he received in his arms the 
dying form of the lamented Johnston, to the last struggle at Murfreesborough, 
he has been one of us, and has shared all our privations and dangers, while 
giving us his personal and political influence with all the power he possessed 
at the head of the State Government. To the medical department of the army, 
under the able administration of Surgeon Foard, great credit is due for the 
success which attended their labors. Sharing none of the excitement and 
glory of the field, these officers, in their labor of love, devoted themselves 
assiduously in attending the sufferings of their brother soldiers at war, when 
others are seeking repose. The reports of subordinate commanders have been 
especially called for, and are soon expected, when they will be promptly for- 
warded. 

During the time the operations at Murfreesborough were being conducted, 
importaiit expeditions under Brigadier-Generals Forrest and Morgan were 
absent in West Tennessee and Northern Kentucky. The reports already for- 
warded show the complete success which attended these galls^nt^ brigadiers, 
and commend them to the confidence of the Government and gratitude of the 
country. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

BRAXTON BRAGG, 

General Commanding. 

General S. Coopee, Adjutant-General, Richmond, Va. 



704 THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN: 



(general llosciirans'fj Report of the (Illui[luimaui9it (Unm^itijgn. 



Head-Quarters Army of the Cumberland, October 12, 1863. 

REPORT OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY OF THE CUMBER- 
LAND—THE OCCUPATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE, AND PASSAGE 
OVER THE CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS. 

The rebel army, after its expulsion from Middle Tennessee, crossed the Cum- 
berland Mountains, by way of the Tantallon and University Roads, then moved 
down Battle Creek and crossed the Tennessee River, on bridges, it is said, near 
the mouth of Battle Creek, and at Kelly's Ferry, and on the railroad bridge, at 
Bridgeport. They destroyed a part of the latter, after having passed over it, 
and retired to Chattanooga and Tyner Station, leaving guards along the river. 
On their arrival at Chattanooga, they commenced immediately to throw up 
some defensive field-works at that place, and also at each of the crossings of the 
Tennessee, as far up as Blythe's Ferry. 

Our troops, having pursued the rebels as far as supplies and the state of the 
roads rendered it practicable, took position from McMinnville to Winchester, 
with advances at Pelham and Stevenson. The latter soon after moved to 
Bridgeport, in time to save from total destruction a saw-mill there, but not ia 
time to prevent the destruction of the railroad bridge. 

After the expulsion of Bragg's forces from Middle Tennessee, the next ob- 
jective point of this army was Chattanooga. It commands the southern en- 
trance into East Tennessee, tlie most valuable, if not the chief, sources of sup- 
plies of coal for the manufactories and machine-shops of the Southern States, 
and is one of the great gateways through the mountains to the campaign coun- 
ties of Georgia and Alabama. 

For the better understanding of the campaign, I submit a brief outline of the 
topography of the country from the barrens of the northwestern base of the 
Cumberland Range, to Chattanooga and its vicinity. 

The Cumberland Range is a lofty mass of rocks separating the waters which 
flow into the Cumberland from tliose which flow into the Tennessee, and ex- 
tending from beyond the Kentucky line in a southwesterly direction nearly to 
Athens, Alabama. Its northwestern slopes are steep and rocky and scalloped 
in coves, in which are the heads of numerous streams that water Middle Ten- 
nessee. Its top is undulating or rough, covered with timber, soil comparatively 
barren, and in dry seasons scantily supplied with water. Its southeastern 
slope above Chattanooga for many miles is precipitous, rough, and difficult all 
the way up to Kingston. The valley between the foot of this slope and the 
river seldom exceeds four or five miles in width, and, with the exception of a 
narrow border along the banks, is undulating or hilly. 

The Sequatchie Valley is along the river of that name, and is a canon or deep 
cut splitting the Cumberland Range, parallel to its length. It is only three or 
four miles in breadth, and tifty miles in length. The sides of this valley are 
even more precipitous than the great eastern-and-western slopes of the Cum- 
berland, which have just been described. To reach Chattanooga from McMinn- 
ville, or north of the Tennessee, it is necessary to turn the head of this Valley 
of the Tennessee, or to cross it by Dunlap or Thurman. 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 705 

That part of the Cumberland Range between Sequatchie and the Tennessee, 
called Walden's Ridge, abuts on the Tennessee in high rocky blutFs, having no 
practicable space sufficient for a good wagon-road along the river. The Nash- 
ville & Chattanooga Railroad crosses that branch of the Cumberland Range 
west of the Sequatchie, through a low gap, by a tunnel east of Cowan, down 
the gorge of Big Crow Creek to Stevenson, at the foot of the mountain, on the 
Memphis & Charleston Railroad, three miles from the Tennessee and ten 
miles from Bridgeport. 

Between Stevenson and Chattanooga, on the south of the Tennessee, are two 
ranges of mountains, the Tennessee River separating them from the Cumber- 
land, its channel a great chasm cut through the mountain-masses, which, in 
those places, abut directly on the river. These two ranges are separated by a 
narrow valley, through which runs Lookout Creek. 

The Sand Mountains are next to the Tennessee, and their southern extremity 
is called Raccoon Mountain. Its sides are precipitous, and its top barren oak 
ridges, nearly destitute of water. There are but few, and these very difiicult, 
wagon-roads by which to ascend and descend the slopes of this mountain. 

East of Lookout Valley is Lookout Mountain, a vast palisade of rocks, rising 
twenty-four hundred feet above the level of the sea, in abrupt rocky cliffs, from 
a steep, wooded base. Its eastern sides are no less precipitous. Its top varies 
from one to six or seven miles in breadth, is heavily timbered, sparsely settled, 
and poorly watered. It terminates abruptly upon the Tennessee, two miles 
below Chattanooga, and the only practicable roads across it are one over the 
nose of the mountain at this point, one at Johnson's Crook, twenty-six miles 
distant, and one at Winston's Gap, forty-two miles distant from Chattanooga. 

Between the eastern base of this range and the line of the Chattanooga & 
Atlanta or Georgia State Railroad, are a series of narrow valleys, separated by 
smaller ranges of hills or low mountains, over which there are quite a number 
of practicable wagon-roads running eastward towards the railroad. The first 
of these ranges is Mission Ridge, separating the waters of Chickamauga from 
Chattanooga Creek. A higher range, with fewer gaps, on the southeast side 
of the Chickamauga, is Pigeon Mountain, branching from Lookout, near 
Dougherty's Gap, some forty miles south from Chattanooga. It extends in a 
northerly direction, bearing eastward, until it is lost in the general level of the 
country, near the line of the Chattanooga & Lafayette Road. 

East of these two ranges and of the Chicknmauga, starting from Ottawah 
and passing by Ringgold to the west of Dalton, is Taylor's Ridge, a rough, 
rocky range, traversable by wagon-roads only through gaps, generally several 
miles apart. 

Mission Ridge passes about three miles east of Chattanooga, ending near the 
Tennessee, at the mouth of the Chickamauga. Taylor's Ridge separates the 
East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad from the Chattanooga & Atlanta Rail- 
road. 

The junction of these roads is at Dalton, in a valley east of Taylor's Ridge 
and west of the rough mountain-region in which are the sources of the Coosa 
River. This valley, only about nine or ten miles wide, is the natural southern 
gateway into East Tennessee, while the other valleys just mentioned terminate 
northwardly on the Tennessee to the west of it, and extend in a southwardly 
direction towards the line of the Coosa, the general direction of which, from the 
crossing of the Atlanta road to Rome and thence to Gadsden, is southwest. 

From the position of our army at McMinnville, TuUahoma, Decherd, and 
Winchester, to reach Chattanooga, crossing the Tennessee above it, it was neces- 
sary either to pass north of the Sequatchie Valley by Pikeville or Kingston, 
or to cross the main Cumberland and the Sequatchie Valley by Dunlap or 
Thurraan and Walden's Ridge, by the routes passing through these places, a 
distance of sixty-five or seventy miles, over a country destitute of forage and 
poorly supplied with water, by narrow and difficult wagon-roads. 

The main Cumberland range could also have been passed on an inferior road 
by Pelham and Tracy City, to Thurman. The most southerly route on which 
to move troops and transportation to the Tennessee, above Chattanooga, was 
by Cowan University, Battle Creek, and Jasper, or by Tantallon, Anderson, 

45 



706 THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN: 

Stevenson, or Bridgeport and the moutli of Battle Creek, to same point, and 
thence by Thurman or Dunlap and Poe's Tavern, across Walden's Ridge. The 
University road, though ditficult, was the best of these two ; that by Cowan, 
Tantallon, and Stevenson being very rough between Cowan and Anderson, and 
much longer. 

There were, also, three roads across to the Tennessee River below Stevenson, 
— the best, but much the longest, by Fayetteville and Athens, a distance of 
seventy miles; the next, a vei-y rough wagon-road from Winchester, by Sa- 
lem, to Larkinsville ; and an exceedingly rough road by way of Mount Top, 
one branch leading thence to Bellefont, and the other to Stevenson. 

On these latter routes little or no forage was to be found, except at the ex- 
tremities of the lines, and they were also scarce of water. The one by Athens 
has both forage and water in abundance. 

It is evident, from this description of the topography, that to reach Chatta- 
nooga or penetrate the country south of it, on the railroad, by crossing the 
Tennessee below Chattanooga, was a difficult task. It was necessary to cross 
the Cumberla^jd Mountains with subsistence, ammunition, at least a limited 
supply of forage, and a bridge-train, to cross Sand or Raccoon Mountains into 
Lookout Valley, then Lookout Mountain, and finally the lesser ranges of Mis- 
sion Ridge, if we went directly to Chattanooga, or Mission Ridge, Pigeon 
Mountain, and Taylor's Ridge, if we struck the railroad at Dallon or south of 
it. The valley of the Tennessee River, though several miles in breadth be- 
tween the bases of the mountains below Bridgeport, is not a broad alluvial 
farming-country, but full of barren oak ridges, sparsely settled, and but a 
small part of it under cultivation. 

The first step was to repair the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, to bring 
forward to TuUahoma, McMinnville, Decherd, and Winchester needful forage 
and subsistence, which it was impossible to transport from Murfreesborough to 
those points over the horrible roads which we encountered on our advance to 
Tullahoma. The next was to extend the repairs of the main stem to Stevenson 
and Bridgeport, and the Tracy City Branch, so that we could place supplies in 
the depots at those points, from which to draw after we had crossed the moun- 
tains. 

Through Colonel Innis and his regiment of Michigan Engineers, the main 
road was opened to the Elk River bridge by the 13th of July, and Elk River 
bridge and the main stem to Bridgeport by the 25th, and the branch to Tracy 
City by the 13th of August. 

As soon as the main stem was finished to Stevenson, Sheridan's division was 
advanced, two brigades, to Bridgeport, and one to Stevenson, and quarter- 
master and commissary stores pushed forward to the latter place with all 
practicable speed. These supplies began to be accumulated at this point in 
sufficient quantities by the 8th of August, and corps commanders were that 
day directed to supply their troops, as soon as possible, with rations and forage 
suflBcient for a general movement. 

The Tracy City Branch, built for bringing the coal down the mountains, has 
such high grades and sharp curves as to require a peculiar engine. The only 
one we had answering the purpose, having been broken on its way from Nash- 
ville, was not repaired until about the 12th of August. It was deemed best, 
therefore, to delay the movement of the troops until that road was completely 
available for transporting stores to Tracy City. 

The movement over the Cumberland Mountains began on the morning of the 
16th of August, as follows: — 

General Crittenden's corps, in three columns: General Wood, from Hillsbo 
rough, by Pelham, to Thurman, in Sequatchie Valley. 

General Palmer, from Manchester, by the most practicable route, to 
Dunlap. 

General Van Cleve, with two brigades from McMinnville, the third being left 
in garrison there, by the most practicable route, to Pikeville, the head of 
Sequatchie Valley. 

Colonel Minty's cavalry to move on the left by Sparta, to drive back Detrel's 
cavalry towards Kingston, where the enemy's mounted troops under Forrest 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 707 

were concentrated, and then, covering the left flank of Van Cleve's column, to 
proceed to Pikeville. 

The 14th Army Corps, Major-General George H. Thomas commanding, moved 
as follows: — 

General Reynolds, from University, by way of Battle Creek, to take post 
concealed near its mouth. 

General Brannan to follow him. 

General Negley to go by Tantallon, and halt on Crow Creek, between Ander- 
son and Stevenson. 

General Baird to follow him and camp near Anderson. 

The 20th Corps, Major-General A. McD. McCook commanding, moved as 
follows: — 

General Johnson by Salem and Larkin's Ford to Bellefont. 

General Davis by Mount Top and Crow Creek to near Stevenson. 

The three brigades of cavalry by Fayetteville and Athens, to cover the line 
of the Tennessee from Whitesburg up. 

On his arrival'in the Sequatchie Valley, General Crittenden was to send a 
brigade of infantry to reconnoitre the Tennessee, near Harrison's Landing, 
and take post at Poe's Cross-Roads; Minty was to reconnoitre from Washing- 
ton down and take post ^at Smith's Cross-Roads ; and Wilder's brigade of 
mounted infantry was to reconnoitre from Harrison's Landing to Chattanooga, 
and be supported by a brigade of infantry which General Crittenden was to 
send from Thurman to the foot of the eastern slope of Walden's Ridge, in front 
of Chattanooga. 

These movements were completed by the evening of the 20th of August. 
Hazen's brigade made the reconnoissance on Harrison's Landing, and reported 
the enemy throwing up works there, and took post at Poe's Cross-Roads on the 
21st. Wagner, with his brigade, supported Wilder in his reconnoissance on 
Chattanooga, which they surprised and shelled from across the river, creating 
no little agitation. Thus the army passed the first great barrier between it 
and the objective point, and arrived opposite the enemy on the banks of the 
Tennessee. 

The crossing of the river required that the best points should be chosen, 
and means provided for the crossing. The river was reconnoitred; the pon- 
toons and trains were ordered forward as rapidly as possible, hidden from view 
in the rear of Stevenson, and prepared for use. By the time they were ready, 
the places of crossing had been selected, and dispositions made to begin the 
operation. It was very desirable to conceal to the last moment the points of 
crossing; but, as the mountains on the south side of the Tennessee rise in pre- 
cipitous, rocky bluffs, to the height of eight hundred or a thousand feet, com- 
pletely overlooking the whole valley and its coves, this was next to impossible. 

Not having pontoons for two bridges across the river. General Sheridan 
began trestle-work for parts of one at Bridgeport, while General Reynolds's 
division seized Shellmound, captured some boats, and from these, and material 
picked up, pi-epared the means of crossing at that point, and General Brannan 
prepared rafts for crossing his troops at the mouth of Battle Creek. 

The laying of the pontoon-bridge at Caperton's Ferry was very handsomely 
done by the troops of General Davis, under the direction of General McCook, 
who crossed his advance in pontoons at daylight, driving the enemy's cavalry 
from the opposite side. The bridge at Bridgeport was finished on the 29th of 
August; but an accident occurred which delayed its final completion until Sep- 
tember 2. 

The movement across the river was commenced August 29, and completed on 
the 4th of September, leaving the regular brigade in charge of the railroad and 
depot at Stevenson until relieved by Major-General Granger, who was directed, 
as soon as practicable, to relieve it and take charge of the rear. 

General Thomas's corps was to cross as follows: one division at Caperton's, 
one at Bridgeport, Reynolds's at Shellmound, in boats, and one division at 
Battle Creek, on rafts. All were to use the bridge at Bridgeport for such por- 
tions of their trains as they might find necessary, and to concentrate near 
Trenton, and send an advance to Frick's, Cooper's, and Stevens's Gaps on the 



708 THE CIIICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN: 

Lookout Mountain — the only practicable routef5 leading down the mountains 
into the valley called McLemore's Cove, ■which lies at its base and stretches 
northeastwardly towards Chattanooga. General McCook's corps was to cross, 
— two divisions at Caperton's Ferry, — move to the valley head and seize 
Winston's Gap, while Sheridan was to cross at Bridgeport as soon as the bridge 
was laid, and join the rest of his corps near Winston's, by way of Trenton. 

General Crittenden was ordered down the Sequatchie, leaving two advance 
brigades, under Hazen and Wagner, with Minty's cavalry and Wilder's mounted 
infantry, to watch and annoy the enemy. He was to cross the river, following 
Thomas's corps at the crossing, and to take post on the Murphy's Hollow 
Road, pushing an advance brigade to reconnoitre the enemy at the foot of 
Lookout, and take post at Wauhatchie, communicating from its main body with 
Thomas on the right, up the Trenton Valley and threatening Chattanooga by 
passing over the point of Lookout. 

The cavalry, crossing at Caperton's and a ford near Island Creek, were to 
unite in Lookout Valley, take post at Rawlingsville and reconnoitre boldly 
towards Rome and Alpine. 

These movements were completed by McCook's and Crittenden's corps on the 
6th, and by Thomas's corps on the 8th of September. The cavalry, for some 
reason, was not pushed with the vigor nor to the extent which orders and the 
necessities of the campaign required. Its contiiiual movement since that 
period, and the absence of Major-General Stanley, Chief of Cavalry, have 
prevented the report which may throw som.e light on the subject. 

The first barriers south of the Tennessee being crossed, the enemy was found 
firmly holding the point of Lookout Mountain with infantry and artillery, 
while our forces on the north side of the river reported the movements of the 
rebel forces from East Tennessee and their concentration at Chattanooga. To 
dislodge him from that place, it was necessary to carry Lookout Mountain, or 
so to move as to compel him to quit his position by endangering his line of 
communication. The latter plan was chosen. 

The cavalry were ordered to advance on our extreme right to Summerville, 
in Broomtown Valley, and General McCook was ordered to support the move- 
ment by a division of infantry thrown forward to the vicinity of Alpine. It 
was executed on the 8th and 9th of September. 

General Thomas was ordered to cross his corps by Frick's, Cooper's, and 
Stevens's Gaps, and occupy the head of McLemore's Cove. General Critten- 
den was ordered to reconnoitre the front of Lookout Mountain, sending a bri- 
gade up an almost impracticable path, called Nickajack Trace, to Summertown, 
a hamlet on the summit of the mountain, overlooking Chattanooga, and hold- 
ing the main body of his corps either to support these reconnoissances, to 
prevent a sortie of the enemy over the nose of Lookout, or to enter Chatta- 
nooga in case the enemy should evacuate it or make but a feeble resistance. 
Simultaneously with this movement, the cavalry were ordered to push by way 
of Alpine and Broomtown Valley and strike the enemy's railroad-communica- 
tion between Resaca Bridge and Dalton. 

This movement was promptly begun on the 8th and 9th of September. The 
reconnoissance of General Crittenden on the 9th developed the fact that the 
enemy had evacuated Chattanooga the day and night previous: and his advance 
took peaceable possession at one o'clock p.m. His whole corps, with its 
trains, passed around the point of Lookout Mountain on the 10th, and camped 
for the night at Rossville, live miles south of Chattanooga. 

During these operations. General Thomas pushed his corps over the moun- 
tains at the designated points. Each division consumed two days in the pass- 
age. The weight of evidence gathered from all sources, was, that Bragg was 
moving on Rome, and that his movements began on the 6th of September. 
General Crittenden was therefore directed to hold Chattanooga with one bri- 
gade, calling all the forces on the north side of the Tennessee across, and to 
follow the enemy's retreat vigorously, anticipating that the main body had 
retired by Ringgold and Dalton. Additional information obtained during the 
afternoon and evening of the 10th of September rendered it certain that his 
main body retired by the Lafayette road, but uacertain whether he had gone 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 709 

far. General Crittenden was ordered, at one o'clock a.m. on the lltli, to pro- 
ceed to the front, and report, directing his command to advance only as far as 
Ringgold and order a reconnoissance to Gordon's Mills. His report, and fur- 
ther evidence, satisfied me that the main body of the rebel army were in the 
vicinity of Lafayette. General Crittenden was therefore ordered to move his 
corps, with all possible despatch, from Ringgold to Gordon's Mills, and com- 
municate with General Thomas, who had by that time reached the eastern foot 
of Lookout Mountain. General Crittenden occupied Ringgold on the lllh, 
pushing Wilder's mounted infantry as far as Tunnel Hill, skirmishing heavily 
with the enemy's cavalry. Hazen joined him near Ringgold on the 11th, and 
the whole corps moved rapidly and successfully across to Gordon's ]\Iills on 
the 12th. Wilder, following, and covering the movement, had a severe fight 
with the enemy at Sill's Tan- Yard. 

During the same day the 4th U.S. Cavalry were ordered to move past the 
Dry Valley road to discover if the enemy was in proximity to that rond on 
Crittenden's right, and open communication with Thomas's command, which, 
passing over tlie mountain, was debouching from Stevens's and Cooper's Gaps, 
and moving on Lafaj'ette through Dry Gap of the Pigeon Mountain. On the 
10th, Negley's division advanced to within a mile of Dry Gap, which they 
heavily obstructed, and Baird's division came up to his support on the morn- 
ing of the 11th. Negley became satisfied that the enemy was advancing upon 
him in heavy force, and, perceiving that if he accepted battle in that position 
he would probably be cut off, he fell back, after a sharp skirmish in which 
General Baird's division participated, skilfully covering and securing their 
trains, to a strong position in front of Stevens's Gap. 

On the 12th, Reynolds and Brannan, under orders to move, promptly closed 
up to the support of these two advance divisions. During the same day. Gene- 
ral McCook had reached the vicinity of Alpine, and, with infantry and cavalry, 
had reconnoitred the Broomtown Valley to Summerville, and ascertained that 
the enemy had not retreated on Rome, but was concentrating at Lafayette. 
There it was ascertained that the enemy was concentrating all his forces, both 
infantry and cavalry, upon the Pigeon Mountain, in the vicinity of Lafayette, 
while two corps of this army were at Gordon's Mills, Bailey's Cross-Roads at 
the foot of Stevens's Gap, and at Alpine, a distance of fifty miles from flank to 
flank by the nearest practicable roads, and fifty-seven miles by the route sub- 
sequently taken by the 20th Corps. It had already been ascertained that the 
main body of Johnston's .army had joined Bragg, and an accumulation of evi- 
dence showed that the troops from Virginia had reached Atlanta on the 1st 
of the month, and that reinforcements were expected soon to arrive from that 
quarter. It was, thei-efore, a matter of life and death to effect a concentration 
of the army. 

General McCook had already been directed to support General Thomas, and 
was now ordered to send two brigades to hold Dougherty's Gap, and to join 
General Thomas, with the remainder of his command, with the utmost celerity, 
directing his mai-ch over the road on the top of the mountain. He had already, 
with great prudence, moved his trains back to the rear of Little River, on the 
mountain, but, unfortunately, being ignorant of the mountain-road, moved 
down the mountain at Wiuston's Gap, down Lookout Valley and Cooper's Gnp, 
up the mountain and down again, closing up with General Thomas on the 17th, 
and having posted Davis at Brooks's, in front of Dug Gap, .Johnson at Pound 
Spring, in^front of Catlett's Gap, and Sheridan at the foot of Stevens's Gap. 

As soon as General McCook's corps arrived, General Thomas moved down the 
Chickamauga, towards Gordon's Mills. Meanwhile, to bring General Critten- 
den within reach of Genernl Thomas and beyond the danger of separation, he 
was withdrawn from Gordon's Mills on the 1-lth, and ordered to take post on 
the southern spur of Mission Ridge, his right communicating with General 
Thomas, where he remained until General McCook had effected a junction with 
General Thomas. 

Minty, with his cavalry, reconnoitred the enemy on the loth, and repulsed 
him in force at Dalton, Ringgold, Letts, and Rockspring Church. The head of 
General McCook's column near the same place, General Crittenden was ordered 



710 THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN: 

to return to hold possession at Gordon's Mills, his line resting along the Chicka- 
mauga, by way of Crawiish Springs. 

Thus, on the evening of the 17th, the troops were substantially •within sup- 
porting distance. Orders were given at once to move the whole line, in the 
order of battle, down the Chickamauga, with a view of covering the Lafayette 
road towards Chattanooga, and facing the most practicable route to the enemy's 
front. The position of our troops and the narrowness of the roads retarded 
our movements. During the day, while they were in progress, our cavalry, 
under Colonel Minty, was attacked on the left in the road. It became ap- 
parent that the enemy was massing heavily on our left, crossing Reed's and 
Alexander's bridges in force, while he had threatened Gordon's Mills. Orders 
were, therefore, promptly given to General Thomas to relieve General Critten- 
den's corps, posting one division near Crawfish Springs, and to move with the 
remainder of his corps by the Widow Glenn's house to Rossville and the La- 
fayette road, his left extending obliquely across it near Kelley's house. Gene- 
ral Crittenden was ordered to proceed with Van Cleve and Palmer's divisions to 
draw the enemy from the Rossville road and form on the left of General Wood, 
then at Gordon's Mills. 

General McfJook's corps was to close up to General Thomas, keep the position 
at Crawfish Springs, and protect General Crittenden's right, while holding his 
corps mainly in reserve. The main cavalry force was ordered to close in on 
General McCook's right, watch the crossing of the Chickamauga, and act 
under his orders. The movement for the concentration of the corps more com- 
pactly towards Crawfish Springs was begun on the morning of the 18th under 
orders to conduct it very secretly, and was executed so slowly that McCook's 
corps only reached Pound Spring at dark, and bivouacked, resting on their 
arms during the night. Crittenden's corps reached its position on the Ross- 
ville road near midnight. 

Evidence accumulated, during the day of the 18th, that the enemy was 
moving to our left. Minty's cavalry and Wilder's mounted brigade encoun- 
tered the enemy's cavalry at Reed's and Alexander's bridges towards evening, 
and were driven in to the Rossville road. At the same time, the enemy had 
been demonstrating for three miles up the Chickamauga. Heavy clouds of dust 
had been observed three or four miles beyond the Chickamauga, sweeping to 
the northwest. 

In view of all these facts, the necessity became apparent that General Thnmas 
must use all possible despatch in moving his corps to the position assigneil him. 
He was therefore directed to proceed with all despatch, and General McCook to 
close up to Crawfish Springs as soon as Thomas's column was out of the way. 
Thomas pushed forward uninterruptedly during the night, and by daj'light the 
head of his column had reached Kelley's house, on the Lafayette road, where 
Baird's division was posted. Biannan followed, and was posted on Baird's left, 
crossing the road leading to Reed's and Alexander's bridges. 

At this point, Colonel McCook, of General Granger's corps, who had made a 
reconnoissance to the Chickamauga the evening before and had burned Reed's 
bridge, met General Thomas, and reported that an isolated brigade of the 
enemy was this side of the Chickamauga, and, the bridge being destroyed, a 
rapid movement in that direction might result in the capture of the force thus 
isolated. General Thomas ordered Brannan, with two brigades, to reconnoitre 
in that direction and attack any small force he should meet. The advance 
brigade, supported by the rest of the division, soon encountered a strong body 
of the enemy, attacked it vigorously, and drove it hack more than half a mile, 
where a very strong column of the enemy was found, with the evident intention 
of turning our left and gaining possession of the Lafayette road between us and 
Chattanooga. This vigorous movement disconcerted the plan of the enemy to 
move on our left, and opened the battle of the 19th of September. 

The leading brigade became engaged at about ten o'clock a.m. on the 19th, 
on our extreme left, extending to the right, -^ihere the enemy combined to move 
in heavy masses. Apprehending this movement, I had ordered General McCook 
to send Johnson's division to Thomas's assistance ; and he arrived opportunely. 

General Crittenden, with great good sense, had already despatched Palmer's 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 711 

dizision, reporting the fact to me, and receiving my approval. The enemy 
returned our attack, and was driving back Baird's right in disorder, when 
Johnson struck the attacking column in flank, and drove it back more than 
half a mile, until his own right was overlapped and in imminent danger of being 
turned, when Palmer, coming in on Johnson's right, threw his division against 
the enemy and drove back his advancing columns. Palmer's right was soon 
overlapped, when Van Cleve's division came to his support, but was beaten 
back, when Reynolds's division came in, and was, in turn, overpowered. Davis's 
division came into the fight then most opportunely, and drove the enemy, who 
soon, however, developed superior force against his line, and pressed him so 
heavily that he was giving ground, when Wood's division came, and turned the 
tide of battle the other way. 

About three p.m.. General McCook was ordered to send Sheridan's division 
to the support of our line near Wood and Davis, directing Lytle's brigade to 
hold Gordon's Mills, our extreme right. Sheridan also arrived opportunely to 
save Wood from disaster, and the rebel tide was thoroughly stayed in that 
quarter. 

Meanwhile, the roar of musketry on our centre grew louder, and the battle 
aj)proacbed bead-quarters at Widow Glenn's house, until musket-balls came near 
and shells burst about it. Our centre was being driven. Orders were sent to 
General Negley to move his division from Crawfish Springs and above, where 
he had been holdiug the line of the Chickamauga, to Widow Glenn's, to be held 
in reserve, to give support wherever it might be required. At half-past four p.m. 
he reported with his division; and, as the indications that our centre was being 
driven became clearer, he was despatched in that direction, and soon found the 
enemy had dislodged Van Cleve from the line, and was forming there even 
while Thomas was driving their right. Orders were promptly given Kegley 
to attack him, which he soon did, driving him steadily until night closed the 
combat. 

General Brannan, having repulsed the enemy on the extreme left, was sent 
by General Thomas to support the centre and at night assume tlie position oa 
the riglit of Reynolds. Colonel Wilder's brigade of mounted infantry occupied 
during the day a position on the Lafayette road, one mile north of Gordon's 
Mills, where he had taken position on the afternoon previous, — when, contesting 
the ground step by step, he had been driven by the enemy's advance from 
Alexander's bridge. Minty's cavah-y had been ordered from the same position 
about noon of the 19th, to report to General Granger at Rossville, which he did 
at daylight on the 20th, and was posted near Mission Mills to hold in check the 
enemy's cavalry on their right, from the direction of Ringgold and Graysville. 

The reserve corps covered the approaches from the Chickamauga towards 
Rossville on our left. The roar of battle hushed in the darkness of night, and 
our troops, weary with a night of marching and a day of fighting, rested on 
their arms, having everywhere maintained their positions, developed the enemy, 
and gained thorough command of the Rossville and Dry Valley roads to Chat- 
tanooga,-^the great object of the battle of the 19th of September. The 
battle had secured us these objects; our flank covered the Dry Valley and 
Rossville roads, while our cavalry covered the Mission Ridge and the valley of 
Chickamauga Creek, into which latter place our spare trains had been sent on 
Friday, the 18th. 

We also had indubitable evidence of the presence of Longstreet s corps and 
Johnston's forces by the capture of prisoners from each ; and the fact that at the 
close of the day we had present but two. brigades which had not been in action, 
opposed to the superior numbers of the enemy, assured us that we were 
greatly outnumbered, and that the battle of the next day must be for the safety 
of the army and the possession of Chattanooga. 

During the evening of the 19th, the corps commanders were assembled at 
head-quarters at Widow Glenn's house. The reports of the position and con- 
dition of their commands were heard, and orders given for the disposition of 
the troops on the following day. Thomas's corps, with the troops which had 
reinforced him, was to maintain, substantially, its present line with Lranuan 
in reserve. McCook, maintaining his picket-line until it was driven in, was to 



712^ THE CHICKAIMAUGA CAMPAIGN: 

close on Thomas, his right refused, and covering the position at Widow Glenn's 
house; and Crittenden to have two divisions in reserve near the junction of 
McCook's and Thomas's lines, to be able to support either. Plans having been 
explained and written, advice given to each and read in the presence of all, 
the Aveary corps commanders returned about midnight to their commands. No 
firing took place during the night, and the troops had assumed position when 
day dawned. The sky was red and sultry, and the atmosphere of the woods 
enveloped in fog and smoke. As soon as it was sufficiently light, I proceeded, 
accompanied by General Garfield and some aides, to inspect the lines. 

I found General McCook's right too far upon the crest, and General Davis in 
reserve upon a hillside west of and parallel to the Dry Valley road. I men- 
tioned these defects to the general, desiring Davis's division to be brought down 
at once, moved more to the left, and placed in close column, by division doubled 
on the centre, in a sheltered position. 

I found General Crittenden's two divisions massed at the foot of the same hill, 
in the valley, and called his attention to it, desiring them to be moved farther 
to the left. 

General Thomas's troops were in the position indicated, except Palmer's line, 
which was to be closed more compactly. 

Satisfied that the enemy's first attempt would be on our left, orders were 
despatched to General Negley to join General Thomas, and to General McCook 
to relieve Negley. Returning to the right, I found Negley had not moved, nor 
were McCook's troops coming in to relieve him. Negley was preparing to 
withdraw his two brigades from the line. He was ordered to send his reserve 
brigade immediately, and follow it with tlie others only when relieved in line 
of battle. General Crittenden, whose troops were nearest, was ordered to fill 
General Negley's place at once, and General .McCook was notified of this order, 
growing out of the necessity of promptly seliding Negley to Thomas. Proceed- 
ing to the extreme right, I felt the disadvnntages of its position, mentioned 
them to General McCook. and, when I left him, enjoined on him that it was an 
indispensable necessity that we should keep closed to the left, and that we must 
do so at all hazards. On my return to the position of General Negley, I found, 
to my astonishment, that General Crittenden had not relieved liim, Wood's 
division having reached the position of Negley's reserve. Peremptory orders 
were given to repair this, and Wood's troops moved into position ; but this 
delay subsequently proved of serious consequence. The battle began on the 
extreme left at half-past eight a.m., and it was half-past nine o'clock when 
Negley was relieved. 

An aid'.' arriving from General Thomas, requesting that Negley's remaining 
bi'igades be sent forward as speedily as possible to succor the left. General 
Crittenden was ordered to move Van Cleve with all possible desi^atch to a 
position in the rear of Wood, who closed in on Brannan's right. General 
McCook was ordered to move Davis up to close in on Wood and fill an opening 
in the line. 

On my return from an examination of the ground in the rear of our right 
and left centre, I found, to my surprise, that General Van Cleve was posted in 
line of battle on a high ridge, much too far to the rear to give immediate sup- 
port to the main line of battle, and General Davis in line of battle in rear of 
the ridge occupied by Negley's reserve in the morning. General Crittenden 
was ordered to move Van Cieve at once down the hill to a better position, and 
General Davis was also ordered to close up to the support of the line near 
Wood's right. The battle in the mean time roared with increasing fury and 
approached from the left to the centre. Two aids arrived successively within a 
few minutes from General Thomas, asking for reinforcements. The first was 
directed to say that General Negley had already gone, and should be nearly at 
hand at that time, and that Brannan's reserve brigade was available. The 
other was directed to say that General Van Cleve would at once be sent to 
his assistance, whicli was accordingly done. 

A message from General Thomas soon followed, that he was heavily pressed, 
Captain Kellog, A.D.C., the bearer, informing me at the same time that General 
Brannan was out of line and General Reynolds's right was exposed. Orders 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSEdRANS. 713 

■were despatched to General Wood to close up on Reynolds, and word was sent 
to General Thomas that he should be supported even if it took away the whole 
corps of Crittenden and McCook. 

General Davis was ordered to close on General Wood, and General McCook 
was advised of the state of affairs, and ordered to close his whole command 
to the left with all despatch. 

General Wood, overlooking the direction to "close up" on General Reynolds, 
supposed he was to support him bj' withdrawing from the line and passing to 
the rear of General Brannan, who, it appears, was not out of line, but was in 
echelon and slightly in rear of Reynolds's right. By this unfortunate mistake a 
gap was opened in the line of battle, of which the enemy took instant advan- 
tage, and, striking Davis in flank and rear as well as in front, threw his whole 
division into confusion. The same attack shattered the right brigade of Wood 
before it had cleared the space. The right of Brannan was thrown back, and 
two of his batteries then in movement to a new position were taken in flank 
and thrown back through two brigades of Van Cleve, then on the march to the 
left, throwing his division into confusion, from which it never recovered until 
it reached Rossville. 

While the enemy poured in through this breach, a long line, stretching beyond 
Sheridan's right, was advancing. Laibold's brigade shared in the rout of 
Davis. Sheridan's other two brigades, in movement towards the left, under 
orders to support Thomas, made a gallant charge against the enemy's advancing 
column, but w^re thrown into disorder by the enemy's line advancing on their 
flank, and were likewise compelled to fall back, rallying in the Di-y Valley 
road and repulsing the enemy, but were again compelled to yield to superior 
numbers, and retired westward of the Dry Valley, and, by a circuitous route, 
reached Rossville, from which they advanced, by the Lafayette road, to support 
our left. 

Thus, Davis's two brigades, one of Van Cleve's, and Sheridan's entire divi- 
sion, were driven from the field, and the remainder, consisting of Baird, John- 
son, Palmer, Reynolds, Brannan, and Wood, two of Negley's brigades, and one 
of Van Cleve's, were left to sustain the conflict against the whole power of 
the rebel army, which, desisting from pursuit on the right, concentrated their 
whole efforts to destroy them. 

At the moment of the repulse of Davis's division, I was standing in rear of 
his right, waiting the completion of the closing of McCook to the left. Seeing 
confusion among Van Cleve's troops, and the distance Davis's men were falling 
back, and the tide of battle surging towards us, the urgency for Sheridan's 
troops to intervene became imminent, and I hastened in person to the extreme 
right, to direct Sheridan's movement on tlie flank of the advancing rebels. It 
was too late. The crowd of returning troops rolled back, and the enemy ad- 
vanced. Giving the troops direction to rally behind the ridge west of the Dry 
Valley road. I passed down it, accompanied by General Garfield, Major McMi- 
chael, and Major Bond, of my staff", and a few of the escort, under a shower 
of grape and canister and musketry, for two or three hundred yards, and 
attempted to rejoin General Thomas and the troops sent to his support by 
passing to the rear of the broken portion of our lines, but found the routed 
troops far towards the left ; and, hearing the enemy's advancing musketry and 
cheers, I became doubtful whether the left had held its ground, and started 
for Rossville. On consultation and further reflection, however, I determined 
to send General Garfield there, while I went to Chattanooga to give orders for 
the security of the pontoon-bridges at Battle Creek and Bridgeport, and to 
make preliminary dispositions either to forward ammunition and supplies 
should we hold our ground, or to withdraw the troops into good position. 

General Garfield despatched me from Rossville that the left and centre stiH 
held its ground. General Granger had gone to its support. General Sheridan' 
had rallied his division, and was advancing towards the same point, and General 
Davis was going up the Dry Valley road, to our right. General Garfield pro- 
ceeded to the front, remained there until the close of the fight, and despatched 
me the triumphant defence our troops there made against the assaults of the 
enemy. 



714 THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN : 

The fight on the left, after t-wo r.M., was th.it of the army. Never, in thi 
history of this war at least, have troops fouglit with greater energy and deter 
mination. Bayonet-charges, often heard of, but seldom seen, were repeatedly 
made by brigades and regiments, in several of our divisions. 

After the yielding and severance of the divisions on the right, the enemy 
made all efiForts to break the solid portions of our line. Under the pressure of 
the rebel onset, the flanks of the line were gradually retired until they occu- 
pied strong advantageous ground. 

From one to half-past three o'clock, the unequal contest was sustained 
throughout our line. Then tlie enemy, in overpowering numbers, -flanked 
around our right, held by General Brannan, and occupied a low gap in the ridge 
of our defensive position, which commanded our rear. The moment was critical. 
Twenty minutes more, and our right would have been turned, our position taken 
in reverse, and, probably, the army routed. 

Fortunately, Major-General Granger, whose troops had been posted to cover 
our left and reai% with the instinct of a true soldier and general, hearing tlie roar 
of battle on our left, and being beyond the reach of orders from the general 
commanding, determined to move to its assistance. He advanced, and soon 
encountered the enemy's skirmishers, whom he disregarded, well knowing that 
at tliat stage of the conflict the battle was not there. Posting Colonel Dan. C. 
McCook's brigade to take care of any thing in the vicinity and beyond tlie left 
of our lines, he moved the remainder to the scene of action, reporting to 
General Thomas, who directed him to our suffering right. 

Arrived in sight. General Granger discovered at once the peril and point of 
danger, the Gap ; and quick as thought he directed his advance-brigade upon 
the enemy. General Steedman, taking a regimental color, led the column. 
Swift was the charge and terrible the conflict, but tlie enemy was broken. A 
thousand of our brave men killed and wounded paid for its possession, but we 
held the Gap. 

Two divisions of Longstreet's corps confronted the position. Determined to 
take it, they successively came to the assault. A battery of six guns, placed 
in the gorge, poured death and slaughter into them. They charged to within a 
few yards of our pieces ; but our grape and canister, and the leaden hail of our 
musketry, delivered in sparing but terrible volleys, from cartridges taken in 
many instances from their fallen companions, was too much even for Long- 
street's men. About sunset they made their last charge, when our men, being 
out of ammunition, rushed on them with the bMyonet, and they gave way to 
return no more. 

The fury of the conflict was nearly as great on the fronts of Brannan and 
Wood, being less furious towards the left. But a column of the enemy had 
made its way to near our left, and to the right of Colonel McCook's position. 
Apprized of this. General Thomas directed Reynolds to move his division from 
its position, and, pointing out the rebels, told him to go in there. 

To save time, the troops of Reynolds were formed by the rear rank, and, 
moving witli the bayonet at a double-quick with a shout, walked over the 
rebels, capturing some five hundred. This closed the battle of the 20th. At 
nightfall the enemy had been repulsed along the whole line, and sank into 
quietude Avithout attempting to renew the combat. 

General Thomas, considering the excessive labors of the troops, the scarcity 
of ammunition, food, and water, and having orders from the general command- 
ing to use his discretion, determined to retire on Rossville, where they arrived 
in good order and took post before morning, receiving supplies from Chatta- 
nooga, and olFering the enemy battle during all the next day and repulsing hia 
reconnoissance. On the night of the 21st, we withdrew from Rossville, took 
firm possession of the objective point of our campaign, — Chattanooga, — and 
prepared to hold it. 

The operations of the cavalry during the battle of the 19th were very import 
ant. General Mitchell, with three brigades, covered our right flank along the 
line of the Chickamauga above Crawfish Springs, against the combined eiforts 
of the great body of the rebel cavalry, whose attempts to cross the stream they 
several times repulsed. 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. 715 ' 

Wilder fought, dismounted, near the centre, intervening, two or three times, 
with mountain-howitzers and Spencer rifles very opportunely. 

On the 20th, Minty covered our left and rear at Mission Mills, and later in 
the day on the Ringgold road. 

General Mitchell with his three brigades covered our extreme right, and 
with Wilder's, after its repulse, extended over Mission Ridq;e, held the whole 
country to the base of Lookout Mountain, and all our trains, artillery, caissons, 
and spare wagons, sent there for greater safety, retiring from the field. He 
was joined by Post's brigade of Davis's division, which had .not closed on the 
army and was not in action. 

On the 21st the cavalry still covered our right as securely as before, fighting 
and holding at bay very superior numbers. The number of cavalry combats 
during the whole campaign have been numerous, the successes as numerous; 
but the army could not have disj^eused with those of the 19th, 20th, and 21st. 
Our artillery fired fewer rounds than at Stone River, but with even greater 
effect. I cannot but congratulate the country on the rapid improvement evinced 
in this part of the service. Our loss of pieces is in part attributable to the 
rough wooded ground in which we fought, and to want of experience in posting 
artillery, and partly to the unequal nature of the contest, our infantry being 
heavily outnumbered. 

For the details of these actions, the innumerable instances of distinguished 
bravery, skill, and gallantry displayed by officers of every rank, and, above 
all, for self-reliant, cool, and steady courage displayed by the soldiers of the 
army of all arms, in many instances even shining above that of their officers, 
I must refer to the accompanying reports of corps, division, brigade, regi- 
mental, and battery commanders. Tlie reports of the cavalry commands are 
not in, for the best of all reasons, — that they have been out nearly ever since, 
writing with their sabres on the heads and backs of the enemy. 

The Signal Corps has been growing into usefulness and favor daily for the 
last four months, and now bids fair to become one of the most esteemed of the 
staff services. It rendered very important service from the time we reached 
the Valley of the Tennessee. Foi* its operations I refer to the report of Cap- 
tain Jesse Merrill, Chief Signal Officei-. 

Our Medical Corps proved very efficient during the whole campaign, and 
especially during and subsequent to the battle. A full share of praise is due 
to Dr. Glover Perin, the Medical Director of the department, ably assisted by 
Drs. Grose, Medical Director 14th, Perkins. 20th, and Phelps, 21st Army Corps. 
A very great meed of praise is due Captain Horace Porter, of the Ordnance 
Department, for the wise system of arming each regiment with arms of the 
same calibre, and having the ammunition wagons properly marked, by which 
most of the difficulties in supplying ammunition, when troops had exhausted it 
in battle, were obviated. From his report it will be seen that we expended 
2,650,000 rounds of musket-cartridges, and 7325 rounds of cannon-ammunition, 
being' 12,675 rounds less of artillery, and 650,000 rounds more of musketry, 
than at Stone River. 

We lost 36 pieces of artillery, 20 caissons, 5834 infantry accoutrements, 8450 
stand of small arms. ,, , , ^ , .. 

From the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Wiles, Provost-Marshal General, it 
will be seen that we took 2003 prisoners. We have missing, of which 

some 600 have escaped and come in, and probably 700 or 800 are among the 
killed and wounded. Of our wounded, some 2500 fell into the hands of the 
enemy swelling the balance of prisoners against us to about 5500. 

It is' proper to observe that the battle of Chickamauga was absolutely neces- 
sary to secure our concentration and cover Chattanooga. It was fought in a 
"ountry covered with woods and undergrowth and wholly unknown to us. Every 
division came into action opportunely and fought squarely on the 19th. ^\ e 
were largely outnumbered, yet foiled the enemy's flank movement on our kft, 
and 'secured our own position on the road to Chattanooga. The battle of tlie 20th 
was foucrht with all the troops we had, and, but for the extension and delay in 
closin.' ouv right, we should prob.ably have driven the enemy, whom we really 
beat on the field. I am fully satisfied that the enemy's loss largely exceeds ours. 



716 THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 

It is my duty to notice the services of those faithful officers who have none 
but myself to notice them. 

To Major-General Thomas, the true soldier, the prudent and undaunted 
commander, the modest and incorruptible patriot, the thanks and the gratitude 
of the country are due for his conduct at the battle of Chickamauga. 

Major-General Granger, by his promptitude, arrived and carried his troops 
into action in time to save the day. He deserves the highest praise. 

Major-General McCook, for the care of his command, prompt and willing 
execution of orders, to the best of his ability, deserves this testimonial of my 
approbation. 

I bear testimony likewise to the high hearted, noble Major-General Crittenden. 
Prompt in tlie moving and reporting the position of his troops, always fearless 
on the field of battle, I return my thanks for the promptness and military good 
sense with which he sent his division towards the noise of battle on the lyth. 

To Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, Chief of Staff, I am especially 
indebted for the clear and ready manner in which he seized the points of 
action and movement, and expressed in orders the ideas of the general com- 
manding. 

Colonel J. C. McKibben, A.D.C., always efficient, gallant, and untiring, and 
fearless in battle. 

Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. Ducat, brave, prompt, and energetic in action. 

Major Frank S. Bond, senior A.D.C., Captain J. P. Drouillard, A.D.C., and 
Captain H. S. Thoms, A.D.C., deserve my honorable mention for the faith- 
ful and efficient discharge of their appropriate duties always, and especially 
tiuring the battle. 

Colonel .Tas. Barnett, Chief of Artillery ; Lieutenant-Colonel Simmons, Chief 
Commissary ; Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. Hodges, Chief Quartermaster ; Dr. G. 
Perin, Medical Director; Captain Horace Porter, Chief of Ordnance; Captain 
Wm. E. Merrill, Chief Topographical Engineer ; Brigadier General J. St. Clair 
Morton, were all in the battle, and discharged their duties with ability and lo 
my entire satisfaction. 

Colonel Wm. J. Palmer, 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and his command, have 
rendered very valuable services in keeping oi:ien communications and watching 
the movements of the enemy, which deserve my warmest thanks. 

Lieutenant-Colonel W. M. Ward, with the 10th Ohio Provost and Head- 
Quarters Guard, rendered efficient and valuable services, especially on the liOth, 
in covering the movement of retiring trains on the Dry Valley road, and 
stopping the stragglers from the tight. Captain Garner and the escort deserve 
mention for untiring eneigy in carrying orders. 

Lieutenant-Colonel C. Goddard, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenant- 
Colonel Wm. M. Wiles, Provost-Marshal General; ]\Iajor Wm. McMichael, 
Assistant Adjutant-General ; Surgeon H. H. Seyes, Medical Inspector; Captain 
D. G. Swain, Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of the Secret Service; 
Captain William Farrar, Aide-de-Camp ; Captain. I. H. Young, General Commis- 
sary of Musters; Captain A. S. Burt, Acting Assistant Inspector-General; 
Captain H. Brooke, Acting .ludge-Advocate ; Captain W. C. Morgendant, Acting 
Topographical Engineer ; Lieuteua?«t Georg« Burroughs, Topographical En- 
gineer; Lieutenant Wm. Porter, Acting Aide-de-Camp ; Lieutenant James Rey- 
nolds, Acting Aide-de-Camp; Lieutenant M. J. Kelly, Chief of Couriers; and 
Assistant Surgeon D. Baclie, were on the iield of battle, and there and else- 
where discharged their duties with zeal and ability. 

I must not omit Colonel J. P. Sanderson, of the regular infantry, who, having 
lately joined us, on those two days of battle acted as aide-de-camp, and carried 
orders to the hottest part of the field. 

Of those division and brigade commanders whose gallantry, skill, and ser- 
vices are prominent, individual special mention accompanies this report. A 
list of the names of those, and others, of every grade, whose conduct, accord- 
ing to the reports of their res-pective commanders, deserves special mention, is 
also herewith sent. 

Major-General W. S. Roseckans. 



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